Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

I think what this proves is that you can't control information, especially with the internet giving a voice to every person on earth. You simply can't silence everyone from saying what they want, as hateful as the words emerging might be. For anyone familiar with internet chat rooms, trolling (the act of agitating anonymous people, simply because you can) explains a lot of the people who are jumping on the bandwagon of trying to irritate the Muslims. So what's the proper (and effective) response to insulting garbage like the content of Jyllands-Posten as well as this VERY OFFENSIVE WEBSITE ?

Economic sanctions is one route: if they can't respect our beliefs, they can't have our business.

A chameleon. He can touch your heart in one role ("Dirty Pretty Things") and make you loathe him in the very next ("Serenity", "Four Brothers"). I think he's the next Denzel Washington. Remember I said that. His name is Chiwetel Ejiofor.

This site sells tropical islands...and for quite reasonable moneys as well. Maybe I should abandon my quest of buying a place in the city and think about moving to a deserted island. At least there are no morons there. Well, except me.

This is like an SF/ alien abduction story. Totally bizarre.


Ampulex compressa is a wasp that has evolved to tackle roaches, insert a stinger into their brains and disable their escape reflexes. This lets the wasp use the roach's antennae to steer the roach to its lair, where it can lay its egg in it. Parasite Rex author Carl Zimmer tells the story in gooey, graphic detail:

The wasp slips her stinger through the roach's exoskeleton and directly into its brain.

Even making 85,000 sterling a week doesn't immunise you against heartbreak, I guess. Goddamn broads.


Arsenal are increasingly concerned about Sol Campbell's state of mind. He has not been seen since leaving Highbury halfway through Arsenal's 3-2 defeat by West Ham and the club do not know where he is or when they will see him again, according to a report in today's Evening Standard.

The report says Campbell did not turn up at a club function involving Tony Blair and Franz Beckenbauer last night and has not been in touch with anyone at the club.

Campbell was at fault for West Ham's first two goals and told club physio Gary Lewin at half-time that he "could not go on".

It can't shoot and it can barely follow orders, but it's the newest recruit to the Israeli military: The llama.

According to the Yediot Ahronot newspaper on Friday, two elite units recently began using the llamas in exercises and operations on Israel's northern border to navigate heavy loads of 60 kilograms (132 pounds) or more through difficult terrain.

The military tried using mules for similar tasks, but although they could carry heavier loads than the llamas, they behaved badly -- at one point, staging a "mutiny" and fleeing, the newspaper said.

According to Brig.

Explosive caricatures of Mohammed saw little fallout in Scandinavia, but will they unleash a new wave of riots in France's Muslim enclaves?

By Kim Rahir

The reaction came quickly. Just a few hours after the publication of several caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in the French daily France Soir, publisher Raymond Lakah fired the newspaper's editor in chief. In a terse statement, the Franco-Egyptian businessman expressed his "sorrow towards those in the Muslim community and all people who had been shocked or made indignant by the publication."

But despite the loss of editor Jacques Lefranc, France Soir hit the newsstands on Thursday with the headline: "Help Voltaire, they've gone mad!" Apparently the other journalists at the Parisian tabloid intend to continue where their top editor had left off.

The paper's editorial continued in the same vein.

How is that term not seen as offensive? I just don't get it!

It's here and it's CRAZY.

Hahaha! Those goatse-sucking bastards.

The exception, of course, being the use of swastikas anywhere.

PARIS - French and German newspapers on Wednesday republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have riled the
Muslim world, saying democratic freedoms include the "right to blasphemy."

The front page of the daily France Soir carried the headline "Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God" along with a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. Inside, the paper reran the drawings.

"The appearance of the 12 drawings in the Danish press provoked emotions in the Muslim world because the representation of Allah and his prophet is forbidden.

Forrest M. Mims III, author of the world's best practical electronics primer, Getting Started in Electronics, summarizes the findings of a 2004 study on the increased likelihood of catching a cold after flying on a commercial plane. Depending on three different flight scenarios, Hocking and Foster found that airline passengers in three different scenarios were 5, 23, or 113 times more likely to catch a cold than if they had not flown at all!

The most logical reason for infections would seem to be the limited amount of cabin air shared by the passengers.

I believe this is what they call a 'slow news day'. This story got equal billing on CNN.com with...the "State of the Union" Address. At least this proves that the terrorists aren't winning.

Actress trips on stairs, gets cut by shattered ceramic

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lindsay Lohan was treated at a London hospital last week after she cut her leg in an accident at Bryan Adams' home, according to published reports.

The 19-year-old "Mean Girls" star had 10 stitches to close a gash on her shin after she slipped on a set of stairs Friday.

Pictures from the Burning Man festival, over the past several years. One of these days, I'll make it there.

'Freedom of the speech' versus 'Religious respect'. Aside from the fact that the cartoon (below) is unbelievably ignorant and offensive, surely it should be classified as a hate message? Akin to say, Swastikas painted on homes in Brooklyn. Denmark maintains that they have total freedom of the press. If this is indeed true, then the boycott of Danish goods makes sense to me because that's the way to respond to anything we find offensive. And I'd like to come up with my own series of cartoons mocking Danish ignorance and bad taste.

A long-running controversy over the publication of caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper boiled over in the past few days as a boycott brought sales of some Danish products to a halt in Arab countries across the Middle East, while Danish interests came under attack.

A diverse group of Muslim activists has stirred a consumer uproar in one of Denmark's fastest-growing packaged-foods markets in a case pitting freedom of the press against religious sensitivity, and which is playing out in the arenas of diplomacy and global trade.

In recent days, Saudi Arabia and Libya have recalled their ambassadors to Denmark, protests have been staged in places like Dubai, where they are virtually unheard of, and Arab and multinational companies have placed ads in Middle Eastern newspapers to deny any connection to Danish companies.

On Monday, Denmark called for its citizens in the Middle East to exercise extra vigilance.

This is very funny.

Javier Bardem, in my humble opinion, is the world's greatest actor, in my opinion. I reached this conclusion after watching "Golden Balls", "Before Night Falls" and, just now, the brilliant "Sea Inside". His versatility is astounding and his ability to inhabit roles is simply mesmerising. If you want to watch art on film, watch him.

I am talking to you about poetry,
And you say when do we eat;
The worst of it is:
I'm hungry too.

This is just plain wrong. Which means it's just plain hilarious.

Hamas' stunning victory underlines the contradictions and hypocrisies in Bush's Mideast policies.By Juan ColeThe stunning victory of the militant Muslim fundamentalist Hamas Party in the Palestinian elections underlines the central contradictions in the Bush administration's policies toward the Middle East. Bush pushes for elections, confusing them with democracy, but seems blind to the

Check out this short video parodying the warning messages that the MPAA inserts before DVDs. It features a series of increasingly rude and bullying messages about what you have "agreed" to by buying the DVD, starting with: WARNING: THE UNLAWFUL DUPLICATION OF THIS MOVIE CARRIES A MAXIMUM PENALTY GREATER THAN THAT OF MANY VIOLENT CRIMES. THE EXPENSE OF RETAINING LEGAL COUNSEL COMPARABLE TO OURS MAY RESULT IN THE LIQUIDATION OF YOUR PERSONAL ASSETS.

She is a total bitch and if you don't think this is about her ego, I have a certain bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in purchasing.


The daytime queen didn't just expose the lies in James Frey's "memoir." She publicly shamed him -- and it was a little creepy.

By Hillary Frey

Jan. 27, 2006 | Today, Oprah Winfrey found herself in a position she has never been in before: having to apologize to her audience. "I regret that phone call," she said during a live taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in Chicago.

This is for the CV-22 Osprey military plane, showing what appears to be a mosque under siege. The headline reads:

"It descends from the heavens. Ironically, it unleashes hell."

Fortunately, Boeing saw the error of their ways and promptly apologized and withdrew the ad.

Posted on Monday, January 23, 2006. From the transcript of radio communication among Israeli soldiers near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The recording was submitted in January 2005 in the trial of the company commander, whose name has been withheld due to a military court order. He faces a maximum of three years in prison. Translated from the Hebrew by Nomi Friedman. Originally from Harper's Magazine, May 2005.

SENTRY: We spotted an Arab female about 100 meters below our emplacement, near the light armored vehicle gate.

HEADQUARTERS: Observation post “Spain,” do you see it?

OBSERVATION POST: Affirmative, it’s a young girl.

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

The man below says, "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field. "

"You must be an engineer", says the balloonist.

"I am", replies the man. "How did you know?"

"Well", says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but it's of no use to anyone."

The man below says, "You must be in management."

"I am", replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well", says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help.

Penetrative sex improves public speaking

A researcher at the University of Paisley has determined that having regular penetrative sex (and only penetrative sex) makes people into better, more relaxed public speakers:

For a fortnight, 24 women and 22 men kept diaries of how often they engaged in various forms of sex. Then they underwent a stress test involving public speaking and performing mental arithmetic out loud.

Volunteers who had had penetrative intercourse were found to be the least stressed, and their blood pressure returned to normal faster than those who had engaged in other forms of sexual activity such as masturbation.