Thar be pirates - oooh aar

I have an MP3 player, I have an iTouch, my wife has an MP3 player and we were seriously considering getting one for our 13 month old baby.

The truth of the matter is that I have not actually bought a CD or music online for years. Maybe 5 years. All of the music I have on either of my digital music players is from discs I bought in the beginning of the century or stuff I downloaded of the interweb in the last year or two.

Have I caused the downfall of the music industry? Probably..... not. Have you and i together created a huge vacuum where their bank balances used to be? Highly unlikely.

What is the real effect of piracy on the music industry, a world wide business of over $60 BILLION a year??

Oddee has the answer - go there, or here, or here, to find out the who's, whats, whys and wherefore of piracy's effect on the music industry.


kthanxbai!

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The Polish tragedy

In case you weren't sure just how much of a disaster Poland went through when their President's plane went down yesterday, here is a who's who of those on the plane.

There were no survivors.

Lech Kaczyński, President



Maria Kaczyńska, First Lady

Ryszard Kaczorowski, last President-in-exile

Krzysztof Putra, vice-Marshal of the Sejm (speaker of Parliament)

Krystyna Bochenek, vice-Marshal of the Sejm

Jerzy Szmajdziński, former Minister of Defence and intended Presidential Candidate for this year’s election

Władysław Stasiak, chief of the President’s office

Jacek Sasin, deputy chief of the President’s office

Aleksander Szczygło, chief of National Security Bureau

Paweł Wypych, Secretary of State in President’s office

Mariusz Handzlik, deputy Secretary of State in President’s office

Andrzej Kremer, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs

General Franciszek Gągor, Chief of Staff

Jerzy Bar, ambassador to Russia

Andrzej Przewoźnik, major historian

Maciej Płażyński, MP, former Marshal of the Sejm

Przemysław Gosiewski, MP, former minister

Zbigniew Wassermann, MP, former minister

Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, MP, former Minister of Social Policy

Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz, MP, former chief of President’s Office

Aleksandra Natalii-Świat, MP, vice-president of Law and Justice party

Leszek Deptuła, MP

Grażyna Gęsicka, MP

Arkadiusz Rybicki, MP

Stanisław Zając, MP

Edward Wojtas, MP

Wiesław Woda, MP

Sebastian Karpiniuk, MP

Grzegorz Dolniak, MP

Janusz Kochanowski, Ombudsman

Sławomir Skrzypek, President of the Polish National Bank

Janusz Kurtyka, President of the Institute of National Remembrance (state institution for historical research)

Bishop Tadeusz Płoski

and the chiefs of every arm of the Armed Forces.

kthanxbai!

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Mr. Deal's Easter by crankylitprof

If you ever wondered what English Literature Professors did in their spare time, read on:

They lived together in the same gray with green trim Victorian house for sixty-some odd years;  he carried her over the threshold after their wedding reception. Money was too tight for an actual honeymoon, but both were thankful to have their own place, more so because all they really felt they needed was each other. The beautiful house was just gravy (though Mrs. Deal kept that house like it was Imperial jade, turning carpets, washing walls, changing  drapes for each season and polishing all the wood with beeswax).

The town grew around them, cars became more prevalent. Eventually, the street was paved, and actual stop signs — and a traffic light! — were erected. They drove the same perfectly-maintained-by-the-Mister beige Packard that he had bought with his Army muster-out pay in the late fifties.

Read the complete, moving, story here

kthanxbai!

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Mazel Tov to doubletapper

Doubletapper has been voted 'Best Foreign National Military Blog' at milbloggiong.com
Considering the competition for the position and the fact that there was only 1 foreign blog winner - he did done good!

Obviously, the fact that he shows many pictures of gorgeous IDF female soldiers in uniform, and with their rifles, in no way influenced the judges.

kthanxbai!

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I'm meant to be the one ranting

The idea of this blog is to bring you, the gentle and highly intelligent genius that you are, a few of the interesting things I find out there on the interweb.

Tanker over at Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated, has this juicy rant about, guess what? Yeah, 'kids today'. Have fun!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot… BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda....

 

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it! ....

There were no MP3’s or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!...
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning...

The whole outrageous rant is here. 

kthanxbai!

iBonkers

The iPad was released just a short time ago but already there are blinking nutters who are doing weird and wonderful things with them:









 kthanxbai!

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Four White Cops, One Angry Black Man

Sounds like a joke or a beginning of a cheesy detective novel?

Its actually another great blog from His Eminence the Ambulance Driver over at his blog, A Day In The Life Of An Ambulance Driver:

  

Four White Cops, One Angry Black Man

 … and the angry black man was high on drugs and emotionally despondent over the inability to kick his addiction.

 And the incident ended not with gunfire, or with the black man writhing on the ground at the end of a Taser, but with the angry black man walking to the ambulance and climbing aboard, of his own free will. The EMTs bandaged the man’s lacerated wrists as he sobbed brokenly, and the cops quietly assured him that they were there to help, not arrest, and that they’d do whatever it took to get the angry black man the help he needed.

And when the angry black man thanked one of the white cops for treating him like a man and a fellow human being, and begged him to accompany him to the hospital, the white cop promised that he’d follow right behind the ambulance, and he’d be there with him in the ER as he went through what was undoubtedly a very frightening time for the angry black man.
 He delivered on his promise, too.
  
That’s how the majority of these encounters go, you know. Doesn’t matter if the cops are white and the angry man is black, or vice versa. With a little compassion and a lot of communication, the vast majority of such incidents end without harm or bloodshed. I see them play out this way every day.

 I tell you this story not because it is unusual, but because it isn’t.

 You know, just in case you got the opposite impression from what you always see in the news.

Having seen this exact situation pan out time and time again I thought I'd spread the word.

kthanxbai!

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You want funny?

You want funny? You can't handle the funny.

As they say over at 'Throw The Ball Already' - this is the funniest beer commercial ever.



Enjoy.

kthanxbai!

The Law is an Ass

God forbid you have a loved one who gets killed in the line of duty, overseas.

After the emotional roller-coaster you and your family go through before the body of your loved can be returned to you, the day of the funeral arrives.

At the funeral you find a group of anti-gay protesters clamoring throughout the service.Personally I'd claim sever emotional distress and use some buck shot to scatter them.

Neptunus Lex shows us that reality isn't so easy:

The father of a Marine slain in Iraq has been ordered to pay the court costs of the odious Phelps clan:

Lawyers for the father of a Marine who died in Iraq and whose funeral was picketed by anti-gay protesters say a court has ordered him to pay the protesters’ appeal costs.
On Friday, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered that Albert Snyder of York, Pa., pay costs associated with Fred Phelps’ appeal. Phelps is the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, which conducted protests at the funeral of Snyder’s son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, in Westminster in 2006.
Lawyers for Snyder say the Court of Appeals has ordered him to pay $16,510.80 to Phelps for costs relating to the appeal, despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the Court of Appeals’ decision.

I guess he hadn’t given enough.

kthanxbai!

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I get bored

I know I get bored.

I know I need a bit of direction.

But I think she needs help first:



kthanxbai!

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don't tell the wife!

I'm just saying - don't send the picture below to your loved one.

Ever.



yeah, you know you’re curious

kthanxbai!

Busting an iPhone thief

I read this story a while ago and was very impressed it on a variety of levels.

The ingenious use of Google Earth and the iPhone applications themselves to find the thief just blew me away!


I think you'll like you'll enjoy the story too;

How to catch an iThief

kthanxbai!

I just don't get it

A coalition of countries are at war, where there are casualties on a daily basis.

A total of 276 British troops have died in the Afghan conflict since operations began in 2001.

The bodies of two soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week will be brought back to the UK on Tuesday.

L/Cpl Scott Hardy and Private James Grigg, both from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, died last Tuesday north of Musa Qalah.
The cortege will pass through Wootton Bassett after arriving at RAF Lyneham.

 The Daily Telegraph, 

10:49AM GMT 22 Mar 2010

 And the British government's response to all this?

March 22, 2010

Army to sack 500 soldiers because of troop 'cap'

 

British troops in Afghanistan

Up to 500 soldiers will lose their jobs under a plan to reshape the Army to better meet the challenges of operations in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence announced today.

Unbelievably, 500 of the army's most learned and experienced NCOs are going to be getting the boot soon.


Can you explain why?

 kthanxbai!

Joke

A U.S. Marine squad was marching north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist who was badly injured and unconscious. On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state.

The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened.
The Marine reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road. I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable, lowlife scum bag who got what he deserved. And he yelled back that Barack Obama is a lying, good-for-nothing, left wing Commie who isn't even an American.

So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, mean-spirited lesbian! He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well, so does Nancy Pelosi!"

"And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."

 kthanxbai!

Mucho gracias to Blackfork for the original.

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Pacific Disappointment

I've just finished watching the first in a series of shows by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg and I'm quite disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of these giants of the movie industry. I loved 'Band of Brothers' and no doubt I'll enjoy the rest of the series of 'Pacific' but right now its not doing it for me.

 I understand that 'Pacific' is based very loosely on Eugene Sledge's book With the Old Breed At Peleliu and Okinawa. This is a masterpiece of a book which I have read, and reread often. It really brings war on the Japanese front alive in a way that few other books have been able to do.

If you want  a few good books about the 2nd World War and are fed up with Stephen Ambrose's regurgitation of the same few stories under different titles then may I suggest the following;

A Writer at War - Vasily Grossman, with the Red Army 1941 - 1945

Sniper on the Eastern Front, Albrecht Wacker (The German side of battle)

The Day the War Ended - Martin Gilbert (A myriad of 2WW first hand accounts)

But I digress. "Pacific" doesn't follow the same format as Band of Brothers which is a bit of a shame as we don't go through training with the 'team'. We don't know their names, we don't know their ranks or place in the hierarchy of the unit. So all we get to see are a few Marines going to war.

So far I can take it or leave it. There is no doubt in my mind that I'll watch the whole series, I just don't really care right now what happens to the characters. Which, I guess, is a shame.


kthanxbai!

 

 

 

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Doctors Without Kiddies

I live in a relatively 'interesting' part of the world. Below is a photo that was recently taken from my car as I drove to work. Not to a border crossing or to a remote location near an army base but on a main freeway between two cities.

I also get to see many cars with CD number plates, Swiss Red Cross vehicles and a multitude of UN buses and people carriers.


On some rare occasions I see 'Doctors Without Borders' vehicles and I just don't get what they do that the UN, The Red Cross and the State itself do. So I wasn't particularly surprised to read what JayG over at MArooned had to share on Thursday in his blog-post 'Idi Amin Was A Humanitarian, Too'

Remember, "It's for the Children™"...

‘Border’ struggle erupts over name

Three years ago, after decades of performing volunteer operations worldwide, George Whitelaw decided he wanted to do something that would have a broader impact.

The orthopedic surgeon from Milton started a small nonprofit organization to provide primary care to children in Central America. He called his organization Children Without Borders, because “our treatment is without borders, and our patients are without borders,’’ he said.

Seems pretty straightforward, right? Except that some didn't see it that way:

The operation was running smoothly - it had grown to have a $60,000 annual budget and three clinics in Costa Rica - until last summer, when Whitelaw received a cease-and-desist letter from a similar but vastly larger organization, Doctors Without Borders. The Geneva-based organization, which employs 27,000 people and has an annual budget of more than $800 million, said the group was infringing on its trademark and threatened legal action if Whitelaw did not change its name.

JayG ends with what I think is a very inciteful line:

I mean, I'll admit to being suspicious man by nature, but when a Google search on "Doctors Without Borders" brings up 4 out of 10 hits for donations...

Go to MArooned to read the full article:Idi Amin Was a Humanitarian, Too...Remember, "It's for the Children™"...

kthanxbai!

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lol = Laugh out loud

I saw this motivational picture and really laughed out loud.

 Reverse stereotype - Think about which one fo these two has done time

Thought you might giggle too.

kthanxbai!

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Lucky Thirteen - a short story

I read a fair bit. Not just the contents of Google Reader but a newspaper every morning and for 30 - 60 miuntes I read a novel in bed every night.

Image by babblingdweeb via Flickr

Recently I have started reading more new authors and I can assure you that as soon as Marko Kloos' novel is out I'll be buying it.

The link to his latest short story 'Lucky Thirteen' is HERE. I found it very interesting, exciting and believable. Definitely worth a read - now.

What are you waiting for? Click here and read the story. You're reading this blog so why not click here and read Lucky Thirteen NOW?? You'll thank me for it I'm sure.

What are your thoughts on the story?

kthanxbai!

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Viral videos don't really suck

So where is the internet taking us now? Much like int he late 1800s when the leaders of industry announced that everything that could be invented, has been invented, we seem to have come to some kind of impasse with the internet and technology.

Mac have introduced the iPad which many are calling simply a larger iPhone, just without half of the functionality.

Steve Jobs and his latest invention, the iPad. (ahem)

Daniel Sevitt, over at 'Eyeview's blog' discusses viral videos and their suckiness.

Go here to read the full article.

He mentions the video below which I found wonderful, and I hope you do too!





kthanxbai!

Team Rubicon are back

When Haiti got hit with the horrid earthquake all the way back in January I spoke about Team Rubicon - here and here.

Chile has been hit by an earthquake which hit 8.8 on the Richter scale. Please note that a 5.0 earthquake is 10 times stronger than a 4.0 earthquake. According to Wikipedia today's earthquake occurs anywhere on the planet only once a year, and has the equivalent of 15.8 gigatons of TNT exploding at the same time.

Haiti's earthquake was a 7.0 so therefore Chile's earthquake has many times the amount of energy that Haiti's had. There are numerous factors that effect the final effect that the release of that energy has on a country but nevertheless, Team Rubicon are ready to roll:

Ladies and Gentlemen:

As you hopefully by now know, Chile has been rocked by a magnitude 8.7 earthquake off it's coast. This earthquake is over 1000x more powerful than the one that struck Haiti over one month ago.

Initial reports from the Chilean government are casualties hovering near 200, however, communication is down with outlying villages and towns on the coast, and that toll is expected to rise sharply in the coming days.

Team Rubicon has assembled a 6 man recon element to fly into southern Chile to assess casualties near the coast, where large aid organizations will not concentrate their efforts. We expect bottlenecks to occur in Santiago, where the airport is shut down for 24 hours, and concentrated efforts to be focused on Concepcion. This leaves a critical gap in medical attention on the coastal towns.

Team Rubicon is asking you to help us offset the cost of this mission. If you can donate $10 or $15 to our website, we can ensure that thousands of Chilean citizens on the coast will receive the care they need.

http://teamrubiconusa.org/donate/

Thank you.

Jake Wood
President, Team Rubicon

kthanxbai!

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