Wet and Cold

But that's life.

Dystopia Found

The 70s were never good to this place, and it seems to have been unkind to the old broad since.

It Makes Biafra look like a Sandbox Fight!

Amish beard-cutting war out of control

Goosestepping with Panache

The Ministry of Silly Walks has it's own armed force.

Without a fake Crisis we are Aimless

Huffington Post:

Without an Asteroid-Annihilating Rocketship, We're Toast

mmmm'kay. Next comes the "planetary distress signal", I suppose.

WE HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE: there is a giant asteroid headed towards Earth. All the astrophysicists and rocket scientists and brain surgeons agree ...

The Psychiatrists though could not be reached for comment.

From the Chronicles of European Wierdness

A Russian Man Was Caught Trying To Smuggle 200 Pounds Of Butter Into Norway

The Forbidden East

Well, not really. The west was what was forbidden to the easterners. The East was forbidding.

“In 1979/80 my family took part in the biggest espionage scandal that the former country of East-Germany saw in its entire 50 years of existence”

- Thomas Wagner, “If It Had Not Been for 15 Minutes”

Mr. Wagner’s story is a tense and fascinating one, and paints an honest, well rounded, and compelling portrait of the DDR that’s rarely found in the English language. Having livbed there myself (as a lucky foreigner who could leave,) I can attest to that.

They Invented Their Own Worst Stereotypes

Now iss de time on Schprockets venn ve tance.

Es ist zum Kotzen

In the early 1980s on the imaginary political frontline of the cold war, desperation was ripe. The western left wanted to disarm unilaterally, just to get the voices out of their heads. Common sense prevailed, and the resolute were victorius.

Looking back, the bleatings and howlings of the fearful seem pathetic, as their only best option was to maintain the status quo that imprisoned hundreds of millions of people east of the “Antifaschistische Schutzmauer”

Streaming TV URLs

Aggregators be damned!

BBC - mms://wm.bbc.net.uk/london/news/nb/londontv_16x9_nb.wmv
CBC North - http://a514.v8752d.c8752.g.vm.akamai.../northbeat.wmv
Russia Today - http://213.161.69.101/russia%20today?mswmext=.asf
Sky News - mms://live1.wm.skynews.servecast.net/skynews_wmlz_live300k
INTRACITV (French) - http://www.impek.com/go/inraci/wm
NASA TV - http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplayli...segment=149773
NHK English - http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/r0/high.asx
CBC Toronto - http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/newsatnoon/toronto.wmv
CBC Montreal [English] - http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/newsatsix/montreal.wmv
CBC Vancouver - http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/newsatnoon/vancouver.wmv
Webmir TV [Russian] - http://www.webmir.tv/tv/video/news.asx
BBC Politics - http://wwitv.com/stream/7689.asx
E-Music Television - http://broadcast.global-mix.net/?m=e-music&.wvx=
Livestation/Various [English] - http://www.livestation.com/channels
Cubavision - http://cubavision.cubasi.cu/Tvcubana
ZDF [German] - http://wstreaming.zdf.de/encoder/livestream6_h.asx
3sat [German] - http://wstreaming.zdf.de/encoder/3sat_vh.asx

Pretty Soon they'll be Able to Take Their Act on the Road

Just like the good old days of sending them to Siberia, Putin and Berlusconi: both close to political obscurity

Aging Supermodel Mullets in the News

It seems we're supposed to get excited about this: Kate Moss covers Vogue as Bowie

With her blonde hair styled into a distinctive mullet, the 37-year-old model is a note-perfect copy of the Aladdin Sane character Bowie created in 1973.

Ziggy Stardust, and the entire cultural buzz that it really wasn't predates Moss' birth by a year.

As there was no enormous rash of either UFO obsessiveness or a newfound ken for crossdressing, one could say that the entire identity engineering thing was a miserable failure. No-one tell Kate Moss that though.

It's ART, you Ignorant Peasants!

Holiday jeers for Ugliest Christmas tree in Germany:

The startling Yuletide sight stands right next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of western Berlin on Breitscheidplatz.

The “Traffic Tree” – the name being a nod to the hectic run up to Christmas - was created by 36-year-old artist Thomas Plattner, who specialises in creating sculptures from found objects. So, instead of traditional holiday baubles and tinsel, battered toys and discarded household items dangle from the tree’s scrap metal branches.

It has been christened the “ugliest” in Germany by the country’s biggest newspaper, Bild.

Normalweise, one would celebrate a meaningful date or event with the finest you can find, those things that show you've sacrificed the most you could... except in modern day Europe where you're supposed to not care.

In fact one can't even plausibly call this pile of literal refuse an homage to nature, or even an offering to the Gods of reccycling.

Heard any Cheesy Headlines Lately?

Soup to Nuts: Portland business is a honey of an idea

After he read a long article in the New Yorker about the honey bee crisis, he decided to take the plunge.

I guess this makes them the perfect candidates for modern farming.

The couple now has two hives.

Among Other Things

Aside from common sense and tolerance, get a load of what’s banned in Iran.

Ceci N'est Pas une GIF

First there was Catblogging, then there was Baby-Blogging

Now there's your innocent child's living forever on their "permanent record"

Snip, Snip: So Long, Baby Mullet

I took one look at that mullet and decided it was time: Ava was going to get the mop chopped. Like it or not.

Poor kid.

What? You've Never Heard of the Paupers' Research Centre ?

What are they good at? Making broad, proud, sweeping summit-closing declarations on stuff they will never actually do:

The European Commission has presented plans to boost spending on scientific research by tens of billions of euros.

EU science commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn on Wednesday (30 November) announced the bloc's new €80 billion envelope, up from €50.5 billion for its previous seven-year funding programme.

In fact it's SO visionary, (after all, who would ever think to do "research" or get the taxpayer to fund some of it,) that they had to come up with a new name for this phenomical invention.

The new scheme, dubbed Horizon 2020, will run from 2014-2020.

"We need a new vision for European research and innovation in a dramatically changed economic environment," said Geoghegan-Quinn.

Wait! Wait! I think I'm having a vision!

Hockey Action Yields to Hair on the Sports Page

OT goal wins for Monarchs

MULLET NIGHT: Hockey hair once again will be celebrated at the Big V as the Monarchs host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.