Ancient article (dating from somewhere early in 2001), but it’s still fun to see how Matt’s list of his ten favourite Simpsons episodes matches yours. You do have a list, don’t you?
Popularity: 7% [?]
Archive for September, 2002
To celebrate/tout the release of the upcoming James Bond movie “Ian Flemming Rolls Over in his Grave” (renamed by the marketing department to “Die Another Day”), a series of your favourite James Bond models has been released. Not Pussy Galore but rather the die-cast kind, like the space shuttle from Moonraker and an assortment of flashy and unlikely sports cars. You know you want them, you geek you.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Warning: this blurb contains serious bogus linkage, a ploy to gather Google juice for Xenu.net. The Internet Archive removed all links to the anti-Scientology site Xenu.net, per request by Scientology’s lawyers. Censorship sucks. Groups like the Internet Archive who cave to pressure from leeches like the Scientology Corp suck. And, most of all, people protected by American free speech laws, people who do not embrace that freedom of speech, suck suck suck.
Popularity: 7% [?]
In an admirable piece of scholarly research, Katharine Gates of Deviant Desires has mapped the relationship between various fetishes, covering the gamut from furverts to breast expansion to amputee wannabees. Where do you want to go today?
Popularity: 16% [?]
If this site is selling something, it’s really being quite clever about it. And if it’s a crackpot… well, he’s also being very clever about it. Under the name Arséne G., a man from Ghent claims to have discovered the location of the stolen painting The Adoration of the Lamb, by the Van Eyck brothers. (You can read up on the history here.) The name Arséne G. is certainly a nom de guerre, as the name of the original theft suspect was Arsene Goedertier. Information on the current location of the painting is being revealed bit by bit over the next few days, culminating in the final revelation at the end of September.
Popularity: 7% [?]
The Project-euh? website defies classification, which certainly qualifies it for marginal interest. All I can say is that it’s a lot of fun, and slightly addictive, like staring at endlessly falling watching Tetris blocks. And it won an award for best personal website in the Algemeen Dagblad web awards.
Popularity: 8% [?]
“A journal for people who love science fiction as a literature of ideas.” Also, send money now. Death of a great site due to bad costs may be imminent.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Ahh, the 24/7 situation comedy we call American mores. On US satellite and cable television we can enjoy the endless sight of helpless victims flinging themselves from the windows of the twin towers, on CNN we can relish in the sight of the crushed and maimed bodies of defeated Afghans, and we can always depend on US political figures to bring some more uncertainty into already uncertain times with their wartalk. But complaints from shoppers at an Orlando, FL, mall over a Manneken Pis figurine might force a Belgian waffle vendor to close down his stall. [Found via d3db.] According to local shoppers, the figure of the boy doing what boys do is “indecent”. The mall seems to be trying to dodge the bullet by claiming prior permission is required for “any sort of decoration, lettering or advertising that is visible from the exterior of the store”.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Damn George Bush for taking up so much of my time and blogging space. And damn him for turning our world upside down. Not only does it turn out that he’s forging ahead on his war plans despite Iraq’s apparent willingness to allow UN inspectors back in, but he also has a “secret” contingency plan for launching nuclear strikes against seven different countries. Whether the White House and Pentagon ever planned on implementing the Nuclear Posture Review is immaterial – the mere existence of such a plan leaves the political landscape wide open for a new arms race.
Can you say nu-ku-lurr hollakast?
The seven nations on the tactical strike list are China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria and Libya. Full of the usual Orwellian double-speak and brimming with macho wartalk, the Nuclear Posture Review is sure to pressure any of the nations on the list into retaliatory posturing. And with all the monkeys currently swinging their swings and flinging their crap in the White House, do we really need seven more overgrown gorrilas beating their chests with metal bars that glow in the dark?
Popularity: 7% [?]
He calls Dick Cheney a dinosaur, he says George Bush is a bully, he’s a gazillion years old, and he’s probably the most respected statesman in the world. He is, of course, Nelson Mandela, Madiba to his friends, Mr. Scum to his enemies. And he hasn’t been pulling any punches announcing his position in the George Bush vs. Sadam Hussein revenge fight.
He doesn’t doubt Sadam’s intentions in allowing UN inspectors back into Iraq, but rather casts aspersions on Bush’s questioning of Iraqi motives. “What right has he (Bush) to come and say that that offer is not genuine. We must condemn that very strongly. That’s why I criticise leaders for keeping quiet when one country wants to bully the whole world.”
His criticism doesn’t come as support for Sadam and his regime, but appears to be directly aimed at Bush and the White House. On the topic of US military action in the Middle East, Mandela says: “It is clearly a decision that is motivated by George W Bush’s desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States of America.”
“If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace,”
he said.
Popularity: 7% [?]
We visited this grand old abbey near the town of Florenville in the Ardennes for the second time last Friday, and I must say it was even more spectacular than the first. Medieval ruins, tranquility (especially without the tourist hordes), and beautiful nature in the sunshine. (It’s possible to spend a couple of days at the current abbey, something I would really like to do next summer.) Of highest importance, of course, was the Trappist beer and cheese produced by the local monks. A couple of bottles of the fine Orval beer, a slice of ripened Orval cheese, and a packed picnic lunch in the nearby forest of Orval… who could ask for more?
Popularity: 7% [?]
A Museum of Contemporary Arts (MAC’s – Musée des Arts Contemporains) has just opened in Hornu, near Mons. The museum is seen as a Walloon equivalent of the Flemish SMAK (Stedelijk Museum Voor Actuele Kunst) in Ghent. I haven’t been yet, but the website promises great things. The horrible HTML (conceptual art?) doesn’t work in browsers other than Internet Explorer, though, so many important people just might never know.
Popularity: 5% [?]
The (Flemish only) e-Privacy website aims a careful look at Belgium’s newish digital privacy legislation. It’s a tricky law to wade through, so a helping hand from the experts at the KU Leuven is a gift from Heaven to website owners.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Brazilian-born architect and urban visionary Oscar Niemeyer is being honoured at Civa in Brussels (open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 to 18:30). An exhibition of maquettes, drawings, photographs, films, furniture and sculpture will be shown until the end of November, and lectures will be delivered by Luc Deleu and Christian de Portzamparc (telephone 02.642.24.53 for details). The exhibition promises to be a must-see for anyone interested in architecture or urban landscapes. Niemeyer was architectural adviser to the organization tasked with implementing the construction of Brazilia, the capital city of Brazil.
Popularity: 8% [?]
