Quotulatiousness

August 3, 2010

Badminton, as described by professional sports announcer

Filed under: Humour, Media, Sports — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:44

H/T to Mark Frauenfelder for the link.

The Guild Season 4 Episode 3

Filed under: Gaming, Humour — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 12:11

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;fg=MsnEntertainment_joseph_player&#038;vid=8b02bc4f-0dc6-4a75-9317-80fe7809e59c" target="_new" title="Season 4 - Episode 3 - Oversupportive'd">Video: Season 4 &#8211; Episode 3 &#8211; Oversupportive&#8217;d</a>

Brett Favre announces his retirement

Filed under: Football, Media — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:13

Either he’s really worried about that ankle, or he’s upset that his intentions are being taken for granted . . . and this will certainly shake things up in the NFC North. Bleacher Report has a quick summary:

Brett Favre began to inform Vikings officials Monday night he will not return for his 20th season, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Jay Glazer of FOX.

Favre reportedly told teammates and coaches that his ankle has not responded and he doesn’t plan to play this year. Favre is expected to issue a press release later Tuesday and the team hopes he changes his mind.

If the retired-then-unretired-then-re-retired Favre doesn’t change his mind again, the happiest man in Minnesota today is Tarvaris Jackson.

Update: ESPN report:

Update, the second: Of course, for some people this news means that the sad-sack Vikings will be lucky to beat anyone this season. Apparently the only thing that matters for success in the NFL is your quarterback: running backs, wide receivers, offensive line, defence, they’re all immaterial compared to the quality of your quarterback.

The Chevy Volt should be called the milliVolt

Unlike the fond hopes of politicians, the Chevrolet Volt isn’t quite the revolutionary breakthrough in transportation we’ve been promised:

The electric Chevrolet Volt will roll off the assembly lines next year.

The price is a staggering $41,000 US — a BMW price for a Chevy.

Price isn’t the only clanger here. The car can only travel for about 65 km on an electric charge. After that, it fires up a gas-powered engine like everything else on the road. So much for reduce, reuse, recycle — this is a car with two engines. Hummers only have one.

And Hummers don’t have a massive battery that’s about as easy to dispose of when the car’s finally done as a tub of PCBs.

The Volt is more than twice as expensive as its non-electric counterparts. It can’t drive far enough to get from one city to another. And when your Volt has a low battery, it literally takes hours to recharge. So maybe it will ready to go when you need it. Maybe it won’t.

I checked; the name “Smart Car” is already taken, but “Dumb Car” is available.

GM knows this. Which is why it plans to produce only 10,000 of them next year.

I’m very much in favour of an economical electric car: the Volt doesn’t meet that definition. It’s been rushed to market for political, not for economic reasons. It’ll be kept in the market regardless of sales figures for the same reason: it allows Barack Obama and senate leaders to point at the Volt as tangible proof that they care about the environment and reducing American dependence on foreign oil.

Your elected representatives demand tokens of your respect

Filed under: Government, Liberty, Politics, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 07:44

You may have elected them (someone had to), but you must show deference and respect at all times:

Sources reported this week that the city council of Elmhurst, Ill., had asked its attorney to research various definitions of “disorderly conduct,” in the course of considering possible changes to rules of decorum in city council meetings. The move was prompted by an incident in June in which a frustrated citizen rolled her eyes and audibly sighed during a meeting, and was promptly ejected from the chamber.

Reportedly, Darlene Helsop had hoped to speak to the finance committee about its plan to hire a state lobbyist, but wasn’t given the opportunity to do so. She sighed and rolled her eyes, to the great irritation of committee chairman Stephen Hipskind. “Making faces behind the mayor’s back is disruptive, in my opinion,” he said, and he ordered Helsop to leave. To their credit, other council members objected and two left, ending the meeting for lack of a quorum. But the council still seems to have asked its attorney to look into the legal ramifications of a rule that would encompass eye-rolling and (presumably) face-making.

So remember, serfs citizens, show respect to your owners leaders . . . or else!

Japan’s centenarians are going missing

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Health, Japan — Tags: — Nicholas @ 07:36

After the discovery that the oldest man in Tokyo had actually been dead for years, it should come as no surprise that the oldest woman in Tokyo has apparently been missing for decades:

Fusa Furuya, aged 113, had been registered as living with her daughter.

But the daughter says she has not seen her mother since the 1980s.

According to government data, there are more than 40,000 centenarians in Japan. But the discoveries in Tokyo have cast doubt on the accuracy of the figures.

Despite being reputed to be Tokyo’s oldest woman, it appears no-one had bothered to check that Mrs Furuya was still alive — until now.

Local council officials have been visiting the very elderly after the body of Sogen Kato, thought to be Tokyo’s oldest man, was found last week.

The police believe he had been dead for more than 30 years.

When officials went to Ms Furuya’s home, they discovered that she had been missing for decades.

Unlike the earlier case, where the man’s family had continued to collect his pension, the family of Fusa Furuya don’t appear to have been involved in pension fraud . . . although you do wonder why they hadn’t noticed her being missing all this time.

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