:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Friday, October 24, 2003 ::

Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Mushroom Mushrooom....... Arrrgh SNAKE

More here

:: Dan 24.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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Tesla coil mainia!

:: popcorn 22.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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Advances in technology have made it possible to create life-like virtual women as an exhibition in London shows. No one’s bother to find out if virtual men can be created and aren’t likely to bother either.

:: Dan 22.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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Google Talk is working now (it wasn’t when I tried it after popcorn blogged it last week, or maybe it was my machine?). So here’s what I got when I fed it "Google Talk is"

"google talk is a job For A Woman s life: in the Universe: The Search for THE Missing link in the chain of Command COMMANDER- in Chief, of the Year Competition The world s CHILDREN The Story of THE Atlantic Slave Trade The Story of THE Volsungs The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Crusader AND the Cancer patient. s treatment plan. and Service agreement The Agreement is made and entered into this day of BETWEEN: The Lions is a bundle of letters. by Henry James The GOLDEN Bowl the Golden Bowl the Golden Bowl By Henry James"

Instant Underworld/Bowie lyrics!

:: Dan 22.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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Ebay are running a free listing day on 23rd October 2003, all you have to do to qualify is select Paypal as one of your payment options.

Not the most interesting thing in the world I know, but it might be of interest to someone.

:: Spokesy 21.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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A heart-warming story of the advances of women in achieving equality throughout the world...

Barbara Walters of 60 Minutes (USA) did a story on gender roles in Kabul several years before the Afghan conflict.

She noted that women customarily walked about ten paces behind their husbands.

She returned to Kabul recently and observed that the men now walked several paces behind their wives.

Ms Walters approached one of the Afghani women and said "This is marvellous. Can you tell the free world just what enabled women to achieve this reversal of roles?"

"Land mines," said the woman.

:: Dash 21.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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There was some talk yesterday (that I can’t find any links to) about the disappointing behaviour of fans during one of the Rugby World Cup games in Oz. One set of fans was being particularly unsporting; booing when the opposing teams were attempting to convert a try or take a penalty, cheering if the conversion missed etc. Apparently this is a sign of creeping loutishness in Rugby, which has been a loutishness free sport for the whole of history, and if this remains uncurbed it will spread to all sport and eventually the downfall of human civilisation. Normally if I hear words that strong I would instantly set about my one man mission to change the entire world for the better through strategically placed sarcastic comments and by having an argument with the in-laws. However, on this occasion I felt no such urge as there was one crucial detail that had been overlooked. The world will not end because there will always be one surviving sport which will never fall prey to the hooligans – the oldest game in the world (no, not that one, ‘the game’ is the oldest profession, I’m talking about the oldest game) - Chess. Chess Hooligans would never have a chance would they?

White player reaches for board after five minutes of intense concentration.

Black player fans:
Boo. Hiss. Boo. (etc)

White player stops to consider move

Black player fans:
What’s he doing? Boo. Hiss. (etc)

White player moves Kings Rook to Kings Bishop 3, takes Queens Bishop.

Black player fans:
Agghh!

White player fans:
You’re not singing, you’re not singing, you’re not singing anymore...

Black player fans:
Ha ha, you needed that Bishop to pull back and protect your fatally open defences. Where’s your Nimzo-Larsen opening got you now eh?

White player fans:
Ha ha, you’ve fallen into the “take the Bishop” trap, there is no hope for you now week minded fool!

White fans go to the bar and order another three pints of Stella each to see then through the game.

Black player fans:
You think we didn’t see that’s what you wanted us to do? Were just playing with you letting you think were doing what you expect but when we Castle it’s going to be a different story isn’t it!?

White player fans (from bar):
You can’t castle from there, your at least three moves away from any safe fall back position and that’s just too slow for our planned attack. Were just waiting for the moment to strike!
Black player moves a pawn

White player fans:
Damn you, where did that come from? But look, you’ve left you King exposed, we only have to move our Queen and you’re as good as toast, oh no, that square is coved by your knight. Shit! (drop drinks)

You see, this will never happen. The world is saved!

:: Dan 21.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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Someone in the office has just bought a Mercedes and has come in showing it off. I’m told it’s not as inefficient as its size would suggest: "it has an economy button, when you press it you can get about 30 to the gallon." I asked if it also had a "drive like a cunt" button but apparently I’m getting confused with BMWs. I remain sceptical.

:: Dan 21.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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Harvard Business Review have published an interesting fictional case-study about a company trying to deal with a Blogger who works for them. "Glove Girl" is generating huge amounts of interests in some of the companies older product lines – to the point that the launch of a new product launch at a trade show is poorly attended due to the Blogger talking in another room – but at the same time has slandered a customer who they were hoping to sign a huge deal with. It throws up lots of good points about the pro’s and con’s of Blogging as a marketing tool and the industry analysis that follows it goes on to explain how Blogging could be used to a companies advantage by publishing a company blog that a large number of employees could all post to thus insuring consensus opinion (although I can’t see this making interesting reading for many companies). One anaylsis of the study is by the CEO of Groove Networks and includes a link to the companies weblog policy, which is not viewable but is highly ranked by Google, I wonder if that was meant to be printed?
I tried searching for any other company that has a published weblog policy but Groove Network was actually the only one that shows up in the search!

The article itself isn’t available online but you can pay $6 to download a pdf (yeah right!). It’s written by Halley Suitt who explains a bit about it on her blog, Halley’s Comment, and suggest that she may post a scan if she can. I would expect she’s been told in no uncertain terms that she shouldn’t.
The points raised worthy of further discussion within a company thinking about this are summarised by Bill Johnston.

Be careful when searching for "Glove Girl", you might find something like this!

:: Dan 20.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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Electrokinetic power - said to be the first new method of generating electricity in over 150 years (albeit in a not very useful form at the moment!)

:: Dan 20.10.03 [Arc]    ::
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