Surviving recession == more work, less money. Bah.

Be prepared, because no one will take your football credentials seriously if you can't play the plastic trumpet.

And with video!

While looking for the pictures I also found the following:

Historical Use of Women's Scarves

A scarf is widely worn by a woman from all parts of the world whether related to a certain religion or as part of a fashion garment. A scarf is a piece of cloth that is used as protection or as fashion or as a religious veil.   

The scarf is different in name and in description depending on the religion. It symbolizes sanctity, character and modesty. Both men and women alike wear scarves either as turbans or veils as part of the religious attire. The Muslims, for instance, wear a head scarf specifically by the women and known also as hijab. This hijab serves as a curtain that enables the women to her privacy.  The Catholics wear veils to cover the heads and symbolizes holiness. In Tibet, the scarves serve as a protective accessory and were used by the pilots so as to avoid in breathing the exhaust fumes. 

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Entertainment came into the picture when scarves were included in the glamour and spotlight of showbiz. It is when the likes of Greta Garbo and Grace Kelley wore scarves in a stylish way and was shown on the different movies. These scarves in fashion were made from different fabrics like cotton, silk, wool, rayon and even the synthetic nylons scarves are put around the neck and head as it is very light.

Maybe as I still have some of those scarves, I should wear one for the ET-Meetup? :-) Paris is often windy enough to make it comfortable to wear.

The US economy shrank slightly less than previously thought in the first three months of the year, although overall economic activity remains weak, US figures have shown.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures total output within the US, fell at a 5.5 per cent annual rate in 2009's first financial quarter, the US commerce department said on Thursday, better than the 5.7 per cent it reported last month.

And I laid out the following scenario:

So here's the picture that scares me: It's September 2009, the unemployment rate has passed 9 percent, and despite the early round of stimulus spending it's still headed up. Mr. Obama finally concedes that a bigger stimulus is needed.

But he can't get his new plan through Congress because approval for his economic policies has plummeted, partly because his policies are seen to have failed, partly because job-creation policies are conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts.

It's only June, but Republicans are already claiming that the Obama economic plan has failed. (Yes, that's insane -- hardly any of the money has flowed to the economy yet -- but this was predictable.) Meanwhile, unemployment is already above 9 percent.

Turkey's football authorities were at the centre of a growing scandal this week after a referee they had sacked for homosexuality and outed to the press began fighting back in the courts and the press.
[....]
His principled stance brought him a wave of support. Three-quarters of Trabzon's 80 referees rang him up to congratulate him. Thirty thousand people signed a petition launched by Turkey's most influential newspaper backing his campaign. One columnist even compared him to Harvey Milk, America's first openly gay politician. Turkey's deputies brought his case to parliament. Most importantly for Mr Dincdag, his pious family, from whom he had kept his homosexuality secret, stood behind him.
[....]
Empowered by Turkey's European Union accession bid, the Turkish gay and lesbian rights lobby has become increasingly outspoken over the past decade. Activists say Mr Dincdag's fight for his rights has the potential to become a landmark case. "For years, the European Union has been talking about the importance of legislation on sexual discrimination in the workplace," said Ali Erol, a spokesman for KAOS-GL, an Ankara-based gay and lesbian rights group. "So far Turkey has not taken one step forward."

Somewhere in cyberspace, the ghost of de Chardin is smiling.

The words of Gandhi, Einstein, Jean Paul Sartre and other great thinkers are to be quoted in service announcements on London's Underground.

Transport for London has commissioned Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller to compile a list of bon mots to be used by Tube drivers.

Among the quotes on offer will be Gandhi's, "there is more to life than increasing at speed".

Deller hopes they will make commuters' journeys a bit more thought provoking.

Cezanne's, "we live in a rainbow of chaos" and Jean-Paul Sartre's, "hell is other people" will also be recited by Tube drivers.

Deller's original plan was to abolish all public address announcements for a day.

And I thought "Mind the Gap" got annoying....

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

As South African (public) television was atrociously sucky, and as I then was stuck with a laptop without DVD player, I've gone through a dry spell with regard to good quality television series with grand story telling. At some point, probably when the cold returns, I'll have to finish The Sopranos and 6 Feet Under, both series which I found orgasmic material, in contrast to (blasphemy alert!) Dr. Who.

So watching Mad Men was like fresh rain on pattering parched soil and I'm keen to see more of it. In an aside, I've often glorified the sixties period in the States - I think I've repeatedly written before that the 1960s in the States, particularly the revolutionary final 5 years, always have had a hypnotic effect on me.

So, are other people watching Mad Men?

...aside from the fact that it'd be against a shitload of really good laws?

Can't wait for her to be gerrymandered out in 2010.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Microsoft will not be offering an upgrade version of Windows 7 in Europe.

In the past Microsoft has given people already using Windows a chance to upgrade to a new version when it becomes available.

While that option will be offered in the US, Microsoft said its efforts to comply with competition regulations meant it could not do so in Europe.

European regulators dismissed the claim, saying the move limited choices rather than opening them up.

The prime minister abruptly interrupted a meeting with senior retailers at the Moscow White House, the seat of the Russian government, to drag them on an impromptu visit to a nearby branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain.

 Striding angrily through the aisles with a retinue of glum executives in tow, Mr Putin came to a halt in the supermarket's cold meat section and gesticulated towards a packet of sausages priced at just under £5.
Rounding on Yuri Kobaladze, the chain's head of corporate relations, Mr Putin demanded: "Why do your sausages cost 240 roubles? Is that normal?" "But these are high quality sausages," Mr Kobaladze replied, looking crestfallen.

With a look of relief crossing his face, the executive spotted some cheaper sausages.

"Look, these ones are just 49 roubles," he said.

But the prime minister was not to be deterred. "Too expensive," he muttered, before conjuring up a price list from his pocket. "I can show you your mark up. Look at this kind of sausage. You've marked it up by 52 per cent."

The exchange was a classic example of the political theatre in which Mr Putin excels. It came just two days after an opinion poll revealed that the principal concern of 75 per cent of Russians was high food prices.

With a host of cameramen and photographers there to capture the scene, the stunt was likely to ensure Mr Putin's reputation as a man of action, and thereby absolve him from carrying any blame for the worst economic crisis in Russia for over a decade.

Having primed his victim, Mr Putin moved in for the kill. Consulting his crib sheet, he pointed towards a packet of pork fillets.

"This is double the (cost) price," he said to Mr Kobaladze. "Is this normal?"

"Is 120 per cent a high mark up?" Mr Kobaladze responded timidly.

"Very high," the prime minister said.

"It will be lowered tomorrow," the executive replied.

I want him to come to my supermarket.  Encased meats... mmmm....

Did anyone else trip up over the phrase, "the worst economic crisis in Russia for over a decade."  


"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Inc. and Taiwan's Acer Inc. -- the top three global producers -- are asking regulators for details of the order that takes effect July 1 to provide the "Green Dam Youth Escort" software with every laptop and desktop PC sold in China.

China is important to PC suppliers both as a major manufacturing site and a fast-growing market. It accounts for up to 80 percent of world production and sales that state media say rose to 147 billion yuan ($21 billion), up 12.8 percent from 2007. ...

Taiwan's Acer Inc., the No. 3 PC maker, says all its computers sold worldwide are produced by contractors in China. No. 2 Dell exports from one Chinese factory to Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong and operates another for sales in China. HP, the world's biggest producer, and China's Lenovo Group did not respond to questions about how much of their China production is exported and to where....

mmm MSFT Vista Windows 7? or Green Dam? Windows 7? Green Dam? WEEEE CANT CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE...

"Given how razor-thin margins are, anything that adds costs, even if it's just dropping a CD into the box, is not welcome," Clark said. Wolf said costs could rise if regulators decide the software must be pre-installed on every PC. That would force makers that sell computers without software, such as in corporate bulk orders, to pay for operating systems to support the filter.

MWAHAHAHAHA

The top U.S. trade officials said the lack of transparency and inadequate notice may violate World Trade Organization rules. In a letter to Chinese officials this week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Trade Representative Ron Kirk called on Beijing to revoke the order. ....

A California company, Solid Oak Software of Santa Barbara, says parts of its own filtering software were used in "Green Dam," raising questions about possible violations of intellectual property rights.

... This is a situation where people are permitted to break taboos and deviate from traditions. This marriage practice pre-dates Christianity and the so-called western culture which most people today blame for all the moral and cultural wrongs in Africa. The same gender marriage is still practiced till date. In other words, there are some families today in Igboland where women are both husbands and wives, fathers and mothers.

There are some homes where woman-husbands are living happily with their woman-wives, though there are not many such families or marriages. Such unconventional marriages and families are in the minority. The fact is that they exist. The fact is that they are part of the local tradition and culture. They are not imports from the West. And this has in no way undermined social cohesion, public order and morality or family values....

Because of the secrecy, privacy and hypocrisy that go with sexual expression, no one can really say if these female partners have or do not have sex with each other. But like all couples they live together and run their families. But today, things are changing.

Individuals are becoming more open, more assertive and expressive with their sexual and marriage choices, desires, orientations and identities. The sexual and marriage dynamics are changing rapidly. And Africans must make the necessary social, cultural and legal adjustments in response to - and to accommodate - these changes.

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said.

Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops.

Australia supplies about 50% of the world's legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers.

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Lara Giddings told the hearing.

I know that the proper Michael Jackson, the beer guru died last year. But apparently a singer with the same name is well known and is in a bad way.

keep to the Fen Causeway