stiffy

Lorenzo von Matterhorn

2009-11-16T23:41:00.001-08:00

Lorenzo von Matterhorn is a fun little piece of character creation from "How I Met Your Mother", the US TV show.

Within the show Lorenzo von Matterhorn is a fictional name (within the show this is) for one of the characters which he uses when attempting to date. He tells a girl this name and she is sufficiently intrigued to go off an Google him. Wehre she finds a series of fake websites mentioning Lorenzo von Matterhorn as being a billionaire, lover of animals and even a page with a warning by doctors that penis reduction surgery would not be a good idea.

Of course, the next time he meets her and asks her out for coffee she agrees instantly.

OK, cute joke: but the amusement goes further. As part of the creation of the fake character the show put up a Wikipedia page for Lorenzo von Matterhorn: in our world, not the TV show one.

This has of course been taken down because it's against the Wikipedia rules. But, umm, now that we're all writing about it, does this make Lorenzo von Matterhorn famous enough to have the whole story explained in Wikipedia again?

Brit Brit on tour

2009-07-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Having recovered from nervous breakdown, a failed marriage and various other tragedies Britney Spears is back on tour which her show "Circus". It's rather better to call it a sho than a pop concert, for of course what with all the dancng that she does she doesn't do much singing (an you say "mime"?).

But that's not the point of course, no one is going to go to a Britney Spears concert to check out the finer points of her singing technique. What matters is the show, the razzmatazz, and reports are that this is just fine.

Circus is currently touring Europe and will be back in the US for s second run around the country in august.

Ain't Globalisation Great?

2008-03-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

There are, sadly, those who think that globalisation is a bad idea. Even, that something ought to be done about it.

However, given the technologies available to us all these days, what, exactly, could be done about it?

For example, have a look at this website, one for India translations. Now, let's say you have a piece of Arabic translation that needs to be done. Or perhaps Farsi translation. You could scour your neighbourhood for someone who knew either of those languages and then pay them to do the work, for sure.

But here you have the opportunity of simply sending the work to India and of thus paying Indian wage rates to get your translation done.

Of course, this also works for Hindi translation. But the point is that you get the work done more cheaply, the translators in India earn better wages than they otherwise would have done....you're all better off.

And short of closing down the internet there's no way of stopping it. So a lesson for those silly enough to think that globalisation is a bad thing: well, what you gonna do about it?

Hawaii Real Estate

2007-09-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

Now here is a real estate blog and site that does something really useful and valuable. Yes, it has all the usual search facilities and so on, you can scroll through listings, look only for apartments, condos, 3 bed houses, or by area, etc etc.

Further, it's all Hawaii real estate, so you're not looking through areas that aren't what you want or anything, wasting time in doing so.

But most importantly, it gets over the biggest problem we all have in searching for real estate for sale. What happens if a place, perhaps the exact place of our dreams, is listed with a broker that we don't know anything about? It's quite common that we don't know about every real estate broker in an area, we cannot read every newspaper and find every website.

So what this Hawaii real estate site does is list all active listings on each of the islands. So there isn't a single place up for sale that you won't see.

An excellent idea and strongly recommended.

New Real Estate Site

2007-08-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

As we know, the US real estate market is going through some turbulent times: perhaps even that is an understatement. However, what turbulence in a market does allow is those with the best information to get good deals. That's why anyone looking to either buy or rent (ie, everyone, as we all have to live somewhere) should be looking for the best souces of information.

I've found one that's worth adding to your list of sources: indeed, it might be the major source you need. It's at www.nationalrelocation.com and has a number of very useful sections. For example, you can look up real state values for different States and thus find out whether what is on offer is a good deal or not. You can also get mortgage quotes, to see whether you can afford what you're interested in or not: or whether there's a financing house willing to offer you a better deal.

The final part that I find interesting is their coverage of houses to rent. Even in today's markets (perhaps especially in today's) it can be a good idea to rent for a time in a specific area, to check that you actually like it. You can also see the trade off between owning the house and building equity and not being responsible by comparing rents and mortgages.

It's a very useful resource: make the most of it!

Katie and Baby Make Five

2007-06-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

In all this news about Katie Holmes and her marriage to Tom Cruise there's one bit that always seem to get forgotten. Or rather two. The children Tom adopted with his previous wife, Nicole Kidman.

According to Katie Holmes the new baby, Suri, gets on really well with the older two children.

But one thing that still puzzles me: if the reason that they did adopt was that Tom Cruise can't have children, then where did Katie Holmes' baby come from?

Arise Sir Stewart?

2007-06-17T04:15:00.001-07:00

Given the way things go in the UK Penny Lancaster won't have too long to wait to become Lady Stewart.

Rod's got his CBE and so is in the waiting room for the K. Another decade or so should see it happen.

So not bad timing for Penny Lancaster to bcome Mrs. Stewart. Well, maybe not actually, Rod's not been known for managing tokeep a marriage going for a decade, has he?

How To Justify it?

2007-06-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

Circumcision I mean.

How do we justify lopping a piece off the end of an infant todger?

There's the religious reasons, of course, there's a few medical as well.

But I'd not heard this one before, that circumcision actually leads to increased sexual pleasure.

Groom's Drunk?

2007-05-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

Then marry the brother, why not?

Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the groom's more sober brother instead, police said Monday.

"The groom was drunk and had reportedly misbehaved with guests when the bride's family and local villagers chased him away," Madho Singh, a senior police officer told Reuters after Sunday's marriage in a village in Bihar state's Arwal district.

The younger brother readily agreed to take the groom's place beside the teenage bride at her family's invitation, witnesses said.

This will of course sound absurd to western types, with our ideas about romantic love being the precursor to a marriage. However such arranged marriages seem to turn out just as well as any other king, the romantic and love part coming from living together, rather than it being the necessary justification before it happens.

Why Get a Mosquito Ringtone?

2007-04-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

A lot of people may laugh at the thought of mosquito ringtones for your cellphone. There are a lot of free ringtones and free MP3 ringtones on the Internet, so why get a queer ringtone the sound of a buzzing mosquito in your phone?

There is actually a reason for this. Studies show that the human ears would lose their ability to recognize high frequency sounds as it ages. As one gets older, the inner ear and the eardrum are becoming less active and flexible. If this happens it can no longer recognize high frequency vibration sound. So if you were a teenager living with an adult or your grandparents, they probably won’t be disturbed with the high-pitched sounds of your mosquito ringtones.

So get the best usual free Cingular Ringtones or free Sprint Ringtones now and leave these buzzing sounds.

Hotel Deals

2007-04-02T02:41:00.001-07:00

Running off to different climes is of course one of the more interesting things we can do with our time. Get away from the humdrum of everyday life, see another part of the world and in general refresh the batteries for the next round of work.

One of the best ways of doing this is to take advantage of the various hotel specials that are sometimes on offer. The thing is, you see, that running a hotel means huge fixed costs and very few marginal costs. What this means is that to just have the place open costs a huge fixed sum but to have one extra guest costs alomst nothing. So hoteliers are very keen on hte idea of selling off those last few rooms they have available even if that means offering them at a much lower than normal cost.

Which is why you want to go to this site, which provides Last Minute Hotel news.

Who i9s slashing their rates right now? Where can you go to get a very good deal in the near future? That's the information they provide and that's exactly what they do, very well indeed.

I thought that this set of hotel updates was very interesting, where are the best places to go binge drinking? Or what are the best hotel specials for the upcoming easter break?

It's an excellent little site and their policy of being right on time with their hotel updates will mean that you'll be able to secure some excellent deals.

Asia Hotels News.

2007-03-28T00:30:00.001-07:00

An extremely useful little site I've just come across, providing Asia hotels news. Well, it's certainly going to be useful for me and it shouldalso be for you if you're about to go travelling in that part of the world, as I am.

Yes, I'm off to the Far East to see one of my customers so I've been looking for Asia hotels news, to see where I should stay when I'm in Taiwan. I've got to still work out which city I need for I haven't got the geography of the island mapped out in my head yet so I don't know which city my client lives in, nor which would be the best city to stay in. (Just so you know, I supply him with the metals which he then uses to make those excellent scandium bikes and baseball bats that are all the rage.)

But over and above all of that, of course, what I'd really like to do after travelling all that way is to see more of the island. I'm pretty sure that for one night, the night of the actual meeting, he'd be able to find me a place, but by looking around for Asia hotels news I might be able to work out a small itinerary to see more of the place.

For example, I've heard that after the Communist Revolution on hte mainland, all of the really decent Chinese chefs went to Taiwan. So that the food there is actually the best of the classical Chinese repetoire: vastly better than what we get here in Europe.

Can you tell, I'm looking forward to this?

Indiana Jones IV

2007-03-18T10:26:00.001-07:00

Good grief! There's going to be an Indiana Jones IV move, with Cate Blanchett and Harrison Ford....and Sean Connery.

SHE was seduced by a school student in her last flick - and it looks like the age gap won't be much different for Cate Blanchett's next potential on-screen affair.

The sultry siren, who played high school teacher Sheba Hart in Notes on a Scandal, has just signed on to star alongside ageing Harrison Ford in an upcoming addition to the Indiana Jones series.

While the specifics of Blanchett's role are being kept under wraps – along with David Koepp's screenplay – it is believed the 36-year-old beauty will feature prominently in the flick.

However, it has been revealed Ford will definitely be reprising the title role he made famous in the '80s – though at 64, and more than a quarter of a century after the original hit the big screen, it's unsure whether he will be more convincing in the role of intrepid archaeologist or one of his fossils.

Not that he is likely to be the oldest cast member on set, with Sean Connery also linked to the project – reprising his role as Indiana's father.

Steven Spielberg will direct the flick – currently known simply as Fourth Instalment of the Indiana Jones Adventures – when it starts shooting in June, with Star Wars creator George Lucas signing on to produce.

That really does sound like one to avoid there.

Jennifer Hudson

2007-03-10T10:12:00.001-08:00

Err, who is this Jennifer Hudson person?

Jennifer Hudson, who went from little-known performer to Oscar winner in the past year, has a new role: representing a perfume.

Avon Products Inc. said on Wednesday it had signed Hudson, who won this year's Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role in the musical "Dreamgirls," as spokeswoman for its Imari brand and new scent, Imari Seduction.

"This is an honor for me and very flattering," said Hudson, whose dreams of stardom appeared shattered when she finished seventh on the U.S. television talent show "American Idol" in 2004.

Err, even after that explanation I still don't know. Am I really that far out of touch with hte modern world? It would indeed appear so, eh?

But her showstopping singing and sympathetic character as the spurned lead singer of a female trio in "Dreamgirls" made her the odds-on favorite for the Oscars.

Bathroom Furniture

2007-02-14T05:24:00.001-08:00

We're in the process of getting this new (to us, at least) house sorted out, the builders are primed and so on. New roof, new floors, new electrics, all those good sorts of things.

However, the one are we haven't decided upon yet is the bathrooms. We need to find a good source of all the things that go into them. Which is why this site, taps4less looks so interesting.

There's a huge selection of all the things we'll need, vastly greater than we can find in any stores around here. Indeed, I think that's one of the biggest added values of internet shopping. As the store only needs to take a photo and upload it, rather than having stock in 50 or 100 locations, then they can in fact have a great deal more options for you to choose from.

For example, their range of shower enclosures, or the traditional bathroom taps, or the bathroom suites. I'm actually looking forward to going through the site and checking out all the different options.

Technorati tags: bathroom furniture

Borat and Murdoch

2007-02-13T11:05:00.001-08:00

Despite what Rupert Murdoch announced, Sasha Baron Cohen has not yet signed up to do the sequel to the Borat movie:

Before Borat fans start giving each other high fives, 20th Century Fox wants to make clear that the boorish Kazakh journalist is not headed back to the big screen just yet.

Hours after News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch told reporters on Thursday that British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen had signed a deal to make a sequel to his hit movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," a studio spokesman said the idea was merely under consideration.

"We're eager to work with Sacha again, and we've had casual discussions about a sequel, which we'd love to do, but at this point, it remains too preliminary to discuss," said Chris Petrikin, a spokesman for News Corp.-owned 20th Century Fox.

"Borat," a faux documentary starring Cohen as a cluelessly offensive Central Asian journalist on a road trip across America, was a surprise box-office sensation last year, grossing $248 million worldwide.

It earned an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay, and Cohen a Golden Globe for his performance as the wild-eyed Kazakh TV personality in a rumpled suit spouting catch phrases like "high five" and "sexy time!"

Box-office success and awards to match virtually guarantee a sequel in Hollywood, and earlier on Thursday, Murdoch said the comedian had already signed a deal to make a "Borat 2."

I have to admit I don't really get Borat (nor Ali G) but then Hollywood doesn't often consider my tastes when making movies, let alone sequels.

Technorati tags: borat, ali G, Baron Cohen

Superbowl Weekend

2007-02-02T10:36:00.001-08:00

So, all the guys will be getting a pissed as newts so what do you offer in the movie theatres? Correct: chick flicks:

Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures are taking a page out of their own playbooks for Super Bowl weekend, revisiting genres that have scored at the North American boxoffice on the weekend of the big game.

Sony opens the Pang brothers' horror film "The Messengers" with hopes of mimicking the $21 million gross generated last year when the studio bowed "When a Stranger Calls." Universal is trying to lure female moviegoers, usually less interested in football, with the Diane Keaton/Mandy Moore starrer "Because I Said So," a strategy the studio used when it released "The Wedding Date" on Super Bowl weekend in 2005.

"Messengers" marks Hong Kong horror directors Oxide and Danny Pang's English-language debut. Starring Dylan McDermott, Kristen Stewart and John Corbett, the PG-13 film revolves around a family that moves to a North Dakota farm and is haunted by mysterious apparitions. "Messengers," from Sony's Screen Gems label, was produced by Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures in conjunction with Mandate Pictures.

Just imagine the carnage and violence if the women insist that they be accompanied to the theatre?

Technorati tags: superbowl

Where's Your Mortgage Coming From?

2007-01-30T00:41:00.000-08:00

With the housing market in the state it is, great deals appearing everywhere, we all need to think hard about where our mortgage is going to come from. That's why it's worth taking a look at Lennox Financial Mortgage. Sure, there are many other providers but none with quite the same commitment to customer service.

But that isn't really the most important point. In today's markets you need choice, you need to be able to look through the various financing options and take the one that is best for you and your specific situation. That's what Lennox Financial Mortgage really provides.

For example, if you know that your income is going to rise in the near future then you can take a 1% ARM mortgage. This keeps payments low now, at the risk of reverse amortization, but with your income increasing, perhaps from a promotion or a bonus payment, it enables you to buy what you want now rather than later.

Lennox Financial Mortgage can also help if you're a little stretched to get what you want. After you pay the moving costs, get the new furniture, it can be very difficult to also pay the closing costs on a deal. So they have an option where, for a slightly higher interest rate over the term of the mortgage, you can include the closing costs in the loan.

Of course, Lennox Financial Mortgage also offer simple fixed rate and fixed term mortgages, which means that you have the choice of whatever is the best financing method for your home. Very much worth checking out, a company that can help you to achieve your dreams in the best and most efficient manner.

Technorati tags: Lennox financial mortgage, mortgage, home loan, ARM, closing costs

Indian Condoms

2006-12-11T04:08:00.000-08:00

Over at the Lindsey Lohan blog a super little tale about Indian Condoms.

No, I won't spoil the punch line for you by giving it here but one part of it is all entirely sensible and believable. The question is whether the last line was delivered with a straight face or not?

If it was a native English speaker I would have sdaid not, it was done tongue in cheek, but with someone not completely at home in hte language, well, it could have been inadvertent.

Fake Priests

2006-12-08T03:32:00.000-08:00

You would think that people would get this, wouldn't you?

A bogus priest and his girlfriend tricked an Austrian pensioner out of $200 after promising him a naked bathtub session with the woman.

"The bogus priest and his girlfriend ran a bath for the pensioner, who undressed and got in straight away," a police spokeswoman in the northern Austrian town of Linz said on Wednesday.

The pensioner waited in the tub for about 10 minutes, but when he heard cupboards being opened and closed in the living room, he emerged from the bathroom and chased the pair out of his flat, she said.

Really? It takes ten minutes to work out that a priest with a girlfriend might not be on the up and up? That one offering you a free nude bath with said girlfriend might not be the most reliable person in the world?

Sheesh. Why aren't we all rich already?

Maria Eva

2006-12-08T03:22:00.000-08:00

An amusing story here about Maria Eva, the Indonesian singer. Apparently she got down and dirty with a politician a couple of years ago and filmed the encounter on her mobile phone. She then lost the phone and it's now all over the net.

An Indonesian parliamentary committee intends to question a legislator over a video distributed on the Internet that appears to show him naked with a singer, the head of the committee said Wednesday.

The shaky, one-minute video that appears to show Yahya Zaini, a member of parliament from the country's biggest party, Golkar, with the woman has caused shock in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

...

The woman who was naked in the video, Indonesian pop singer

Maria Eva, held a televised news conference in which she said she took the footage using her mobile phone.

She denied distributing the video on the Internet and said she had lost her mobile phone.

It's just this surveillance society isn't it? Getting ever more difficult to have that bit of illicit nookie.

Smellovision!

2006-12-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

Long a standard part of sci-fi dystopias it looks as if advertising by smell might really be coming:

What was billed as a pleasing alternative to exhaust fumes at San Francisco bus stops ended after officials Tuesday ordered the removal of advertisements that gave off the scent of baked cookies.

The fragrant billboards, posted at five bus shelters on Monday in an effort by dairy producers to make passengers thirsty for milk, had to come down because the shelters' maintenance contractor had not informed San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency officials, said an agency spokeswoman.

The thing is, and this is something that I'm sure most Americans wouldn't get, is that the association of cookies and milk wouldn't work elsewhere in the world. They're just not associated in quite the same way.

I Wouldn't Try a Thong

2006-12-06T06:19:00.000-08:00

There's at least one part of the world where dressing a little too sexily might not be a good idea:

A town in Muslim-majority Malaysia has threatened to fine non-Muslim women for wearing "sexy" clothes, infuriating some women's organizations.

Authorities in northeast Kota Baru, which calls itself an Islamic city, will slap fines of up to 500 ringgit ($140) on women who expose navels, wear body-hugging outfits, mini-skirts or see-through blouses, the Star newspaper said on Tuesday.

"Such outfits are prohibited here as it smears the reputation of Kota Baru and affects its status as an Islamic city," the Star quoted municipal council spokesman Azman Daham as saying.

If you were thinking of hanging out on the beach in a g-string bikini, or perhaps a thong, may I respectfully suggest that you think about doing it somewhere else?

Metrosexuals

2006-12-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

It's long been thought that the outbreak of metrosexuality, you know, men using face creams, making sure their clothes fit, all those decidedly silly things, were confined to the great cities of Blue America.

Sadly, this turns out not to be the case:

Urban Chinese men spend 8.6 minutes a day gazing at themselves in the mirror and shell out 80 yuan ($10) a month on beauty products, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a survey.

Men in Beijing and the financial center of Shanghai were neck-and-neck on whose residents were most vain.

Those in the capital spent the most money on cosmetics -- an average of 119 yuan a month -- but those in Shanghai looked in the mirror the longest -- about 17 minutes a day.

I have a feeling that it might be neccessary to do something about this. Can the world's mines that supply black polo necks survive China adopting them too?

Technorati tags: metrosexual, china, men's cosmetics

Testing Tags in Blogger

2006-11-19T09:29:00.000-08:00

So this is just a test to see whether I can insert tags correctly using this blogging tool.

Technorati tags: blogs, advertising

Windows Live Writer

2006-11-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

So now our question becomes whether this is actually the best way of posting both to this blog and also to 419 er Watch. From the slightly absurd things I've from it so far this automatically allows me to post the same post many times, but not at the same time to many blogs. Hmm.

Test

2006-11-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

OK, so will this windows live writer allow me to post to my blog? and if it fdoes, will it post links?

Capitalists and Capitalism

2005-03-29T07:08:00.000-08:00

One of the things that makes modern capitalism so different from previous types is theexistence of the Internet Entrepreneur. Rather than trying to control machinery, that vital partthat makes the workers more productive, the internet entrepreneur is attempting to control human capital, both much more difficult and much easier. More difficult because your bright marketers and programmers tend to bugger off if you kick them, not something that used to happen with a steam engine. Easier, because you don’t actually have to have money to bring them together. There are any number of companies that have been started with nothing but sweat equity and whatever computers the staff themselves already own. Real money doesn’t come into it until 6 months down the line. So the job or career of an internet entrepreneur can be both easier and harder than that of his top hatted forebears.