Severe Jam Damage

This is very cool. The (US) Library of Congress has started a flickr account which currently contains 3000 photos from its archives. Some extremely cool and interesting images here. They’ve left them as common use - so there are no copyright restrictions - and are encouraging people to add their own tags and any identifying information they can. Have spent a while browsing round the pics this morning, the 1940’s in colour set has some breathtaking images. Pic shown was taken in 1940, Pietown, New Mexico.

Pietown sounds very Suessian don’t you think?

LoC flickr

Georgie-Porgy and APEC are causing ructions down in Sydney. They’ve walled off half the city to protect against terrorists and demonstrators.
Priscilla is living down there at the moment and has a flickr set of photos of the protests…
Hope he doesn’t mind me linking to them here.

This is perhaps one of the most disgusting things I’ve read all year.

Richard LittleJohn

Here is a link to a rather innocuous newspaper article.

However, it is the comments section that really made me snigger…

samples:

‘They are a nuisance, and also the flying wizards of Satan. There, I’ve said it.’

‘This is preposterous! Pigeons performed a vital role in assisting communications in both World Wars and should therefore be encouraged to breed in higher numbers in order to remind us that we must never forget. Perhaps the money would be better spent erecting a large memorial of a Rock Pigeon or perhaps a Feral Pigeon - I’ll leave that decision to the council. I don’t think a Wood Pigeon memorial would be particularly appropriate because I don’t think they did too much for us during the war. Other than food.’

I myself have never been attacked by a pigeon, nor indeed defecated upon by such a feathered being, but I feel it is my duty to point out to certain contributors to this discussion that it is no laughing matter to be on the receiving end of pests and vermin. Just the other day, for example, I was held prisoner in my own home by a violent squirrel who demanded I perform certain “acts” in order to regain my freedom. I was shamed. But the most shameful thing is, I secretly enjoyed it. How wrong is that?

I AM BARRISTER MOSES UKABANJO FROM LAGOS NIGERIA AND I NEED TO TRANSFER 35 MILLION PIGEONS OUT OF MY COUNTRY

I’m glad I’m not a turkey at Christmas, but it seems that goats have it worse in Sweden.

Hmmm, so there would appear to be a serial baby jesus thief loose in the states. Although not necessarily with the same M.O.

And finally, from the ‘neighbours from hell‘ department…

A new doctrine on the use of US nuclear weapons has been leaked to the press. Go read blather.net about it, cos daev has spent the last couple of days researching it. (Not to mention he’s a better writer than I.)

And now something from the weird and wacky section of the Grauniad:

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government’s marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

‘My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,’ he said. ‘The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?’

Shades of Douglas Adams here methinks.
more

I was watching Sky News last night, and the pics from New Orleans are truly horrible. People without water or food crying ‘George Bush where are you? Please help!’

The Mother figures this will be the end for GW. (Gormless Wonder) Organisation for the evacuation and care of people down there seems to have been really bad. Considering they could predict almost to the minute when Katrina would make landfall and they were aware that there were still x number of people who wouldn’t (or couldn’t) get out of the city they should have been laying in supplies from weeks ago.

GW on telly last night asking Merkin’s not to buy gas unless they really needed to. Fuck the gas Bushboy, what about the thousands of people with no food or clean drinking water??

I’ve also been following the Interdictor’s blog for updates. Makes for some tough reading when you think that the US is a first world country. People are being raped and murdered, bodies are being left to rot in the streets. It’s like a bad Hollywood movie script.

So Kylie has cancer, the real Piano Man has been found and ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ ended on US TV last night.

That is the news, thank you and good night.