Rowan Atkinson at a Conservative Party Conference

By akie

Only 3 minutes but brilliantly funny. Another apparently classic Rowan Atkinson:

I didn’t know this guy is actually funny

Obama meets Miyagi

By akie

The “Big Lie”

By akie

I read this quote today and it somehow reminded me about Fox News…

never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

But the thing is, it’s not about Fox News, but from a psychological profile prepared during WW2 by the United States Office of Strategic Services.

European Partnerships

By akie

So how do all the different European Partnerships relate to each other? This diagram from Wikipedia provides some insight.

Bonus points if you can identify every flag

The American Era

By akie

From The Gaping Void

On 9/11

By akie

Churchill motivational posters

By akie

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Mingling in the international community

By akie

A friend of mine wrote this:

In international environments, such as Geneva, you will encounter people from many different cultures and backgrounds. Without proper precautions, encounters with people so different from yourself might quickly go awry. Having observed interactions between many people for a while, I was able to compile the following list of tips to ensure smooth sailing in a sea of sensitivities. Note that this list only contains only genuine items - techniques tried in practice. All of them have been observed, not made up, it all really happened, and I was lucky enough to be present to bring you these gems of diplomacy.

Tips for people from …

Check your passport to see if any of these tips apply to you.

China

• Cook and eat like in you’re in China, preferably while other people are trying to eat.
• Explain that Falung Gong members are involved in politics and not just religion. Proceed to say that therefore it’s logical that they’re being persecuted.

Germany

• Ask someone for his or her nationality. Remind them how many days it took the Nazi’s to conquer that country.

USA

• Make sure your presence is noted. Use your accent to alert a whole room or train at once.
• Mix in “y’know”, and “like” when speaking a language other than English to make things clear.
• Act surprised whenever somebody has never heard of something only found in the US.

Upon encountering people from…

Once you’ve figured out the nationality of whomever you’re talking to, use the following tips to get a conversation going.
(more…)

Capitalism & socialism

By akie

Click to view more

Jedi Obama

By akie

Is this for real? Link to XL version.

Make the pie higher!

By akie

A poem constructed with words uttered by former US president, George W. Bush.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
by George W. Bush

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

And yes, he really did say all of these things

Rummy

By akie

Haha @ Donald Rumsfeld

World leaders on Facebook

By akie

Sage Sossel made this wonderful spoof of Facebook.

Via The Presurfer

Map of Europe

By akie

Subtle (cough), yet true

Via Flickr

The times, they are a-changin’

By akie

Link to story - might be one of the most important political events in a long time.

Here’s a link to the Dylan song that inspired the title.Uncomfortably appropriate.

Countries not adopting the metric system

By akie

From Wikipedia and reddit.

Darwin-Obama poster

By akie

Pure genius

Full set

Evil Obama

By akie

Just to counter the previous ‘Obama is cool’ post

Cursing Obama

By akie

This is brilliant:

Ray, a fellow classmate of Obama’s, was also bi-racial, and also trying to define himself. But what set him apart was his colorful manner of self-expression. Ray cursed like a motherfucker.

This would all be snickerworthy enough, but it turns out that Obama actually read the audiobook version of Dreams For My Father.

And that means he read Ray’s quotes.

And that means you’re about to hear the President of United States using language that would finish Cheney off once and for all.

Link

Edit: Or watch the YouTube clip:

Debt

By akie

Link

The collapsing American empire

By akie

Dmirty Orlov has some mighty interesting slides (back from 2006) on similarities between the Russian collapse and the current state of affairs in the United States.

Link

Socialism

By akie

I’m not a socialist, but I liked the following cartoon anyway.

Portret van een gemeenschap die de schaamte voorbij is, le Borinage

By akie

Sfeerimpressie van een dorp in Wallonië. Geen wonder dat die Vlamingen van ze af willen.

Link

Volledige tekst: (more…)

389 years ago…

By akie

Impressive graphic from wallstats.com

Full image here.

Notice of Revocation of Independence

By akie

An oldie but goodie:

NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE

To the citizens of the United States of America,

In the light of your failure to elect a President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
(more…)

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Bad weather

By akie

Bad weather doesn’t stop Barack Obama from campaigning. Powerful image.

Link

Bush/Che Guevara t-shirt

By akie

I think this Bush/Che Guevara t-shirt is hilarious.

You can buy it at e-bay.

Angry Americans debating revolution?

By akie

Wow, the 700 billion dollar Wall Street bail-out has Americans publicly debating revolution:

Know what FUCK IT

I am sick of this, every day, we get deeper into shit with no end in site. IM TIRED of being responsible. IM TIRED that this country rewards stupidity while shunning those that show SOME intelligence..

(…)

To my government. Im tired of giving you the benefit of the doubt. You have done nothing but to use fear and manipulation to get what you want, not for the good of the nation, but for the good of your “close” friends. Bush, Congress, All you fuckers, you work for US not corporations. Remember, you depend on the little people, stop fucking with us or we WILL eventually get mad. We’re too fat and happy right now, but it seems to be wearing off with the FANTASTIC news you keep giving us.

So FUCK YOU Wall Street. FUCK YOU ignorant citizen who bit off more than you could chew causing this whole fucking system to choke. Everyone knew that home prices were too high to be sustainable, but you guys kept buying. Rising the fucking price up. Can’t rent, NO thats for poor people. EAT SHIT AND DIE, I WANT A FUCKING REVOLUTION AND I WANT IT NOW.

Debate on reddit.

EDIT: Boing Boing: “US Congresspeople (were) told martial law would be imposed if bailout bill didn’t pass”. I don’t think this is going to happen - I sure hope not - but the fact that people are talking about it scares the shit out of me.

In case of civil unrest

By akie

Graffiti on a London street:

Via reddit, believed to be from this site.

McCain - Palin

By akie

I found it on Reddit, but it seems to be from Daily Kos.

Asaf Hanuka’s comic book style cartoons

By akie

I like Asaf Hanuka’s politically themed cartoons:

About the growing tendency of manufacturers to cover toys with warning labels (for Forbes magazine).

For an article about oil dependency (Rolling Stone magazine).

More

Democratic party

By akie

This animation made me laugh.

“The world according to America”

By akie

This is what searching for “The world according to America” on Google’s image search turns up:

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Time magazine’s archive: 1939-1945

By akie

I have always wondered how people in the years before, during and after WWII observed the events that were happening. Now I know, thanks to Time Magazine - who have put their complete archive online, for free. You can access it using Google News.

A small selection:

• Chamberlain’s appeasement (Monday, Mar. 07, 1938)
• Hitler mobilizing the army (Monday, Aug. 22, 1938)
• Churchill addresses the U.S. Congress (Monday, May. 31, 1943)
• Post-war discussion on what to do with Germany (Monday, May. 14, 1945)

Thank you, Time Magazine, for putting this online.

Old Europe beats the hell out of USA, China at Olympics, no one notices

By akie

In the overall medal standings at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Old Europe has beaten the crap out of both China and the US - winning almost twice as much gold as the United States, and more than double the amount of medals of China. Despite the heated debate about exactly this subject, no one seems to notice.

Old Europe, an informal name for the European Union before its recent enlargements, managed to obtain 64 gold medals, 68 silver medals and 70 bronze medals - a total of 202 medals, solidly claiming the first place in the overall medal standings.

The 12 countries involved (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Great Britain, Denmark, Greece, Portugal and Spain) have a total population of 366 million people, somewhat more than the United States, but far less than China.

So it seems Europe came out on top in this Olympics. But please, continue to ignore the elephant in the room. It’s not as if we have the largest economy in the world, or six times the fire power of China.

Obama in Europe

By akie

Obama has been my favorite presidential candidate for quite some time (links to a post from January, but seems like a long-long time ago). Yesterday, he visited Berlin, where these amazing pictures were taken. Amazing.

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U.S. debt…

By akie

The U.S. debt is now at $53 000 000 000 000, or $455 000 per person. Wow. Just wow. That’s completely insane and utterly irresponsible. Let’s hope for a soft landing.

Link

Histomap of world history

By akie

I think I would like to have this map of world history:

“Not a map really, but a 5-foot-high chart showing in one glance 4,000 years of human history on a global scale. Thirty years ago I saw this on the wall of someone’s dorm room and it flipped me out then, and every time I’ve seen it since. Its beauty is how Mr. Sparks divies up world power (somewhat crudely) into its main factions graphed in each increment of fifty years since 2000 B.C.E. Different civilizations are color-coded so one can easily trace the flow and ebb of culture over the centuries.”

Unfortunately, it is out of sale - but luckily there’s still a high quality mirror online.

Which candidate?

By akie

Which US presidential candidate represents you best? I made this test (now also in English) - and found out I should put my money on Barack Obama. No surprises here

Funny ads

By akie

Scary Ideas has a nice collection of ads, apparently solely collected for your entertainment. Really worth checking out.

I took the accompanying picture from this set of (real? fake?) ads for the US Democratic Party.