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Only home for 5 minutes from a meeting half way across the country and now off out for subtitled cinema! It's that rubbish film, 'Knocked Up', though... but, subtitles. At the cinema. A rare treat.
I hope you've all had a good day... Ad astra per aspera
Not more knocked-up commie space cockroaches? Chocolate ones? When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
One more entry in the log of "Things I really wish I'd never Googled." "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
Anyway my task failed. I may have to change my ideas about how much I can spend cos I'm really not finding anything in the price range I wanted. Or I am but it's moon distance milage, really ratty etc etc.
anyway, on a brighter note, the deal on my flat is due to go through either tomorrow or monday. keep to the Fen Causeway
And given your requirements for a solid 4WD it's worth a thought.
I've only heard of Witham, but I'm sure there are other sources:
http://www.witham-sv.com/tender/lots.php
The trial of the murderer was in the headlines of the news here every day. Today we have a verdict.
flandersnews.be - Hans Van Themsche found guilty
Thu 11/10/07 - The jury of the Antwerp Court of Assizes has found Hans Van Themsche guilty on all counts. Last year in a racist frenzy he went on the rampage and shot two people dead. A third person was badly injured. The jury ruled that Van Themsche was accountable and knew what he was doing. It added that his acts were driven by racist motives.
The jury ruled that Van Themsche was accountable and knew what he was doing.
It added that his acts were driven by racist motives.
This is the first time in Belgian legal history that a defendant has been found guilty of murder motivated by racism. The Belgian Government's anti-racism centre has welcomed the outcome. The centre's lawyer Tom De Meester yesterday said that the jury's verdict had enormous social importance. He added:"The jury has made it clear that racism cannot be tolerated.
The Belgian Government's anti-racism centre has welcomed the outcome.
The centre's lawyer Tom De Meester yesterday said that the jury's verdict had enormous social importance.
He added:"The jury has made it clear that racism cannot be tolerated.
flandersnews.be - Life for Hans Van Themsche
Thu 11/10/07 - The 19-year-old Hans Van Themsche, who killed two people and injured a third in a racist frenzy will serve a life sentence. On Thursday the jury of the Antwerp Court of Assizes together with the three magistrates decided that the youngster would serve the heaviest possible sentence.
... Almost every newspaper began their reports of Wednesday meetings between Sarkozy and Putin with Sarkozy happily telling his host of finally achieving his dream of waking to see Red Square -- a story that appeared to leave Putin cold. "It remains unknown whether Putin has had any such experience and whether he could truly understand his guest's feelings," the state Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily said. The Kommersant and Izvestia dailies meanwhile irreverently wondered how Sarkozy's dream had come true, noting that the National Hotel where Sarkozy stayed did not afford the view. The Kommersant newspaper concluded that he must have slept in a bar on Red Square.
... Almost every newspaper began their reports of Wednesday meetings between Sarkozy and Putin with Sarkozy happily telling his host of finally achieving his dream of waking to see Red Square -- a story that appeared to leave Putin cold.
"It remains unknown whether Putin has had any such experience and whether he could truly understand his guest's feelings," the state Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily said.
The Kommersant and Izvestia dailies meanwhile irreverently wondered how Sarkozy's dream had come true, noting that the National Hotel where Sarkozy stayed did not afford the view.
The Kommersant newspaper concluded that he must have slept in a bar on Red Square.
And to return from seriousness, I'm sure the look on Putin's face after Sarko mused about waking up in the kremlin was just deliciously cold. hehehe "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
Can you psychoanalyse this picture?
Hint: Sarko was wearing 5 cm high heels.
"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char
you are the media you consume.
When they're not actively attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction, 'Axis of Evil' countries such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea are busy enjoying their region's finest dishes. And their 'Axis of Somewhat Evil' cohorts, such as Cuba and Syria, are at it too. With over one hundred recipes, from soups and salads to meat dishes and desserts, this unique cookbook includes snapshots of each country as well as profiles of famous leaders. Regional recipes appear alongside dictators' favourite dishes - from Kim Jong-Il's ruthless appetite for shark fin soup to Saddam's celebrated rack of fresh roasted gazelle. Full of cultural anecdotes, political insight and delectable recipes, "The Axis of Evil Cookbook" is an intriguing and forbidden treat.
REVIEWS: 'Both tasteless and edifying.' Valentine Pickle
Hat tip to The Arabist, who says it's already available on Amazon.co.uk, but not the US version....
Perhaps not an original idea, though, or maybe the author had an earlier online version; I found this, apparently dating back to January of 2004.
First off,
Russia Blog has given it's "Shoe Award" (I think this is how Creationists say "you suck the most) to ...
The Economist.
The recent conspiracy yarn produced by The Economist entitled, "Russia Under Putin: The Making of a Neo-KGB State," is at best a Bond movie starring George Lazenby. More amazing still is the fact that just a few months ago, Dr. Daniel Thorniley, a prominent Russia expert and the Vice President of The Economist's own consulting wing-- the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)--castigated The Wall Street Journal and CNN, for their bizarro take on Russia: "More rubbish is written and spoken about Russia than any other country on the planet Earth." Incongruously, the timeline-challenged article noted above makes The Economist sound less like the EIU and more like quacktogenarian Lyndon LaRouche and his hyperbolic Executive Intelligence Review. Meanwhile, Exile.ru does a fantastic job of debunking their lies in the highly-recommended critique "The Economist: The World's Sleaziest Magazine". The article includes great insights, such as: "Let's leave aside for now the very strange decision to anchor an anti-silovik story to Kondaurov - a former KGB general who was a top Yukos executive (respect to the PR firm that helped arrange that)." As one Russian reader e-mailed to Russia Blog upon reading The Economist piece: "These KGB guys were the only educated adults left who didn't hijack the money wagon in the 90s. But think about it, who else in that age group is qualified to manage the country? Even Saint Khodorkovsky had KGB guys on his payroll. Many are highly educated, multi-lingual managers, left without jobs, but taught to aim high. Still, if you meet a lot of the old KGB guys, it is sort of like meeting Ivy League graduates. They are less impressive up close and it's hard to believe that any of them could organize anything much larger than a dinner party..." Again, we are pleased to present this year's Shoe Award to The Economist. As a further token of goodwill, we are providing you with a free copy of Executive Intelligence Review, which is evidently not in heavily circulation in London. Apparently, The Economist seems to have cornered their market niche these days.
"Let's leave aside for now the very strange decision to anchor an anti-silovik story to Kondaurov - a former KGB general who was a top Yukos executive (respect to the PR firm that helped arrange that)." As one Russian reader e-mailed to Russia Blog upon reading The Economist piece:
"These KGB guys were the only educated adults left who didn't hijack the money wagon in the 90s. But think about it, who else in that age group is qualified to manage the country? Even Saint Khodorkovsky had KGB guys on his payroll. Many are highly educated, multi-lingual managers, left without jobs, but taught to aim high. Still, if you meet a lot of the old KGB guys, it is sort of like meeting Ivy League graduates. They are less impressive up close and it's hard to believe that any of them could organize anything much larger than a dinner party..." Again, we are pleased to present this year's Shoe Award to The Economist. As a further token of goodwill, we are providing you with a free copy of Executive Intelligence Review, which is evidently not in heavily circulation in London. Apparently, The Economist seems to have cornered their market niche these days.
Here's he article in the Economist that really got their goat.
The making of a neo-KGB state
Here's that fab article from the eXile, should any of you have recently appeared from your cave.
The Economist: The World's Sleaziest Magazine
Apparently all this attention has forced the Economist to ... get ready for this folks ... make, in Bob Amsterdam's words, "a long-overdue call to jettison the language of the democracy debate."
That's right. They are so pissed with RUSSIA being a democracy while they are trying to promote democracy, they are swearing off the word democracy altogether. Oh, also, there is some Euro-bashing in there too.
The end of "democracy"
They say: Democracy all too often means buying votes, rigging elections and mob rule.
Whoever can dig up the most quotes from the Economist touting democracy gets a pony!
Oh, and by the way, Bob, it's not long overdue. I wrote about this a year and a half ago. gah! grrrrr.... "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
Right Brain v Left Brain | Herald Sun
THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.
THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.
I'm left-brained, acc'd to this. But I can easily see it move in either direction. "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
Wee bit black and white methinks. keep to the Fen Causeway
Funnily, when I clicked on it to save it, it changed direction. I suppose focusing on a logical/technical task made my left brain kick in.. "Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char
what i find most interesting was to try and witness the change-over sensation in my brain, but it seems totally friction-free.
there seems to be a 60/40% preponderance to clockwise.
fascinating... "These days, there's nothing more ridiculous than the truth." Leonard Pitts Jr
"If you watch the dancer's bouncing foot you'll see (I think) that the image slowly changes and then reverses direction."
But I watched and...no change. Then I looked away and back: she's dancing the other way!
Then, if I looked at the text on the left and not the picture I could catch the shifts--and then I pondered how it worked, watched the text and kept the image on the periphery of my vision--the image seemed to be skating along, wobbling the way those speed skaters do.
And then, I could even get the image--for a moment or two--to turn one way and then the other. Very clever! Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
Which led me to believe that it's a trick -- maybe the image changes? It doesn't make sense otherwise.
I looked at it for while longer, looked away a few times, watched her switch directions a few more times, and this time paid attention to whether she was standing on her left leg or her right. And that changes too, so I still thought the image itself must change.
But now I've stared at it a good long time, and I've been able to actually focus enough to see her switch directions a lot more often, almost but not entirely whenever I want to.
I am still not convinced that the image doesn't change at some point, though, because I can't see both images at the same time, and usually with these perception-switching tricks I can.
I also tried it on an assortment of willing victims, who all saw something different. At the same time.
Clockwise for me, by default, but I can make her switch by looking at her lower foot.
Trying to make her switch by looking at her arms made me feel ill.
(Although for sitemeter purposes, some possibly might wish that they were....)
I think the count is one anti-clockwise and everyone else clockwise, so far.
(I just checked: she was going counter clockwise in your honour.) Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
So...
Er...
Don't forget to report back!
(And anyone with links to those who designed this--mucho appreciatum!) Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
Now I want to know who designed the image and how they explain the mechanism.
I think it is to do with assuming direction to a black shape--the shape is two D but we assume solidity, so one half of the brain assumes a certain spin....
...uh oh...I just thought of quantum mechanics and that means I'll be leapt upon by left-brain types. Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
I've just decided I'm ambicerebral. If that's a word... "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
Until I concentrated only on the foot she pivots on, and there was a shift and she was going anti-clockwise. It soon went back to clockwise though.
<cough> Does this really prove anything? When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
Ach, now I can't.
I have to look away from the image, though, to make it change--or else (and so it's a brain thing) if I lose concentration she reverts...
....I can see her foot going around as I type...it's going anti-clockwise...and I can make it flip!
one thing happens and then the other: somehow the brain is choosing to see A before B; with the flip it sees B before A and the direction changes. Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
"Yep, definitely counter clockwise for me."
and there's a lone voice saying,
"Well I see it going clockwise." Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
I think that means you are so far to the left you're to the right, or you're so far to the right you're to the left, or, um, you grew up with clocks that ran backwards? Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
The only thing I really failed at in school was learning to tell time. (I grew up with digital clocks.) I stayed after school and cried in the 3rd grade because I just couldn't understand how to tell time. I failed a test. I had intensive all night study sessions with my father. Eventually I figured it out, but for a while everyone was freaking out because I was in all these gifted kids classes but couldn't tell time. It was my dirty little secret.
No clue if there is connection there.
I think my head might just be on wrong. "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
I saw an earlier comment about 3D pics. You can train your brain to see these things faster. If you give me a 3D pic I am able to see what it is in less than five seconds. I just simply go cross-eyed and stare through the picture, and let the rest assemble itself. I love them. I can do a similar thing with different patterns, like upholstery on an airplane seat (yep, I can make it 3D!!!) I used the same principle while looking at this spinning woman... and it works! She started switching, like a pendulum. Slaloming, really. Try it! "If you cannot say what you have to say in twenty minutes, you should go away and write a book about it." Lord Brabazon
Yes, I can do those 3D pictures easily too (once I figured them out), and I do the same with patterns!! Curtains, shadows, graphic patterns have provided hours of dissociative pastime for me. It's almost like pulling focus on a camera, really.
Yay. I'm not insane.
So, perhaps it has more to do with the ability to shift perspective (literally and figuratively) easily than with being "right" or "left" brained? Interestingly, I would associate that skill with the "creative" mind and not the "logical" one. "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
Easily shifting focus is probably well said. I think it might be caused by easier communication between left and right brain that women have (the corpus callosum works better for us, apparently. Migeru reminded me of my psychology classes ;), credit to him.)
So maybe this little experiment shows that we are actually using both sides of the brain fairly well??? :) (Nothing wrong with a bit of ego-boosting on this apparently very right-brained blog... LOL) "If you cannot say what you have to say in twenty minutes, you should go away and write a book about it." Lord Brabazon
Scientific proof that this site has a male bias? lol.
So maybe this little experiment shows that we are actually using both sides of the brain fairly well???
Like I said, I'm going with "ambi-cerebral." (I thought I'd just made up this term, but some googling -yes, I can google, Mig- reveals its previous, though I suspect illegitimate, existence.) "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
The fact that Chris noticed--after having no doubt read and commented on economic this and financial that--explains his reaction to the image.
The fact that those who have looked have tried to see it spinning the other way shows we are eager to learn.
The fact that more than one of us suspected that the image had been manipulated in some way shows that some of us have a latent susception to conspiracy theories.
Which we will try and debunk, of course. Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
i see it both ways. depending ont hem oment ... it is very nice..
but again is about the primary visual cortex... and noone is so stupid to claim that it has to do with something about the right or left brain...
a pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
Here's another optical illusion.
And here's one that is definitely (they say) "right brain/left brain".
Hidden Face Illusion - Optical Illusion
Can you find the human face which is hidden in these coffee beans? Doctors have concluded that if you can find the face in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the face between 3 seconds and 1 minute, your right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the face between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the face after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger!
Can you find the human face which is hidden in these coffee beans?
Doctors have concluded that if you can find the face in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the face between 3 seconds and 1 minute, your right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the face between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the face after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger!
I'd say it took me about a minute and yes: there really is a face in amongst those beans! Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
it is really amazing research...
I got oa two hour fullt reatment about brain implication of this kind of visual perceptions..a dn the reaction times to them...
And I have also read simialr things ina ntrhopology about presenting the same kind of visual percetpion to different cultures with other learnt parametres of perception...
really amazing
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
And your diary about magic, of course. Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
this is a good way to start..a s good as any other
http://www.weizmann.ac.il/brain/images/ImageGallery.html
or..
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:yAGF13wXIA4J:www.dandavidprize.org/pr/2004_EnglishGrinvald0404. doc+weizmann+institute+brain+research+amiram&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=opera
A pleasrue I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
We are told there's a face hidden, so we find it?
Is everyone seeing the same face? When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
12 votes - 35 %