Humping USB Dog

HUMPING USB DOG

Thanks to one of the fabulous twitter people I follow, I found this magical product, the Humping USB Dog.

This is how you can order one, too. And you know you want one!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/japanfan/9c89/

Down Boy!

Harley and Duke are naughty doggies. They won't eat out of their food bowls; they track mud all over the place; they are constantly burying our pens; and they have a peculiar naughtiness whenever they spy a free USB port. They...well...they sort of, kind of, um... "go to town," if you will. And they won't stop until you um...separate them from the source of their affections.

Why are they like this? We have no idea. It doesn't serve any purpose, but it's what they do. They are insatiable. And that's all we really have to say. Harley is brown and Duke is black, and you can take your pick. Oh, and don't worry - if the kids ask what the doggie is doing to your computer, just say, "He's trying to jump over the computer, but he got a little stuck," or "The computer is giving him a piggyback ride." Either will suffice.

Each dog is about 2.25" tall and requires USB power to get turned on. Sorry, we had to.

X-box's latest video game, as seen by South Park

John Stewart Parodies Insane McCarthy-era Throwback Glenn Beck

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First Lady Collectible Doll

Thanks to the fabulous JEZEBEL website, I learned about a must-have addition to anyone's political propaganda tchotchke collection, the First Lady doll from Danbury Mint.

http://www.danburymint.com/collectibles/prod/Michelle-Obama-Inaugural-Doll_12568.aspx?tag=D1&manuallinktypeid=2&source=WG03&cm_mmc=google-_-collectibles-_-branded-_-michelle+obama+sitelink

England's Poet Laureate' Ode to Becks

BBC News published an article about the latest work by England's Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, who was inspired by Becks' injury which will keep him from playing in the World Cup. You MUST NOT MISS hearing the Bard herself reading her radical poetic masterpiece as her delivery only adds to the potency of her rhymes. You can read more and watch her read the poem here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8570282.stm

Achilles by Carol Ann Duffy

Myth's river - where his mother dipped him, fished him, a slippery golden boy flowed on, his name on its lips.

Without him, it was prophesied, they would not take Troy.

Women hid him, concealed him in girls' sarongs; days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs...

But when Odysseus came, with an athlete's build, a sword and a shield, he followed him to the battlefield, the crowd's roar,

And it was sport, not war, his charmed foot on the ball...

But then his heel, his heel, his heel...

Note the subtleties of her poem. First there is the tragically serendipitous nature of Becks' injury. Second is her audacious anachronism. Third is her post-Modern appropriation of Classical myth to bring such tropes closer to the British, privileging the global/glocal mass cultural form that is football. Third, her way with words. Rhyming "sarong" with "song" which although geographically incongruous might be seen as in the interests of melodious rhyme and as a post-Colonial move to undermine the hegemonic role of Western culture. She could have gone another route, the sartorial and temporal incongruity, selecting "thong" to rhyme with "song" and thus inserting a meta-reference to Posh and Becks' well-known fashionista tendencies and recent underwear advertisements. Here she would have fused several mass cultural forms - fashion, print culture, video, the internet, and football. So, one might say, in passing over "thong," she dropped the ball. Ah, her heel, her heel, her heel.......

AbEx Stamps

I just ordered my set of AbEx stamps from the US Postal Service. We need to support any instance of public support for arts!! When I lived in Spain, I was astounded at the everyday relevance of museums and fine art. Here, we would never see a report on a National Gallery exhibition on the Evening News with Brian WIlliams but in Spain it is routine to see segments about Prado or other museum shows. There you also have programs featuring nerdy art historians sitting around tables talking about art, in fact, I was featured in one! (as close to my fantasy of being a TV celeb as I ever got, I made the most of the cosmetic technician who was available to powder our shiny noses between takes, who knew those lights are so hot!).

Mass Graves in Spain

SOURCE: EL PAIS see link to article detailing the survey map of known mass graves. According to Amnesty International, the country with the second largest number of mass graves, after the first which is Cambodia, is Spain.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/1850/fosas/primer/mapa/tragedia/elpepiesp/20100304elpepinac_11/Tes


The graphic above, created by EL PAIS, is a provisional map of locations of mass graves where thousands of victims of the genocidal Franco dictatorship still lie. Survivors and witness - and of course perpetrators with impunity - have died, complicating the discovery of the sites. Over 100,000 names of disappeared people were submitted to Judge Baltasar Garzon, who requested them to open up cases against the dictatorship. There was an Amnesty law in 1977 that prevented investigation except by scholars, family members, and volunteers. To this day the government does not provide official support for excavations of mass graves or DNA testing. The judge is currently being investigated thanks to complaints of judicial prejudice brought against him by Fascists (imagine if Nazis had been able to remove Nurenberg judges claiming they were biased?)