LA City, County Officials: Keep Your Pistol In Your Pants On New Year’s Eve « CBS Los Angeles.

now i want a fireplace, or other motivations to sit there motionless without technology.

BBC News – A Point of View: Does more information mean we know less?.

YouTube – Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain:Leaning On A Lampost.

YouTube – Nils Landgren – I Will Survive .

If you’ve ever wanted to distinguish between Czech and Slovak by looking at their distinctive uses of accents, this has pages and pages of fun. Also covered are Armenian, Yiddish and Basque.

now for record’s sake, the ground rules for future elections:

1: no dry (non-alcoholic) destinations. thus riyadh, bandar-e-abbas and certain counties of georgia are out.

2: no stupidly expensive flight destinations. i’m thinking YOU, tahiti.

3: Plamen and Joëlle have to come, wherever we pick. sorry, it’s the rules from now on.

4: no camping or caravans. club med only for kids.

5: all destinations to be screened for acceptability (kandahar) in advance. any member of the circle may strike down any proposal, but must give reasons.

6: no factions or parties to be formed.

7: own places / urban areas of residence may not be submitted. thus for example oakland, CA and surbiton are both out.

8: scouting to be done first and foremost by those closest or (failing that) who cast the winning proposal.

9: obscure locations (narsarsuaq) to be presented in detail when they are proposed.

10: format of proposals: in writing, showing name and destination (generally described) only.

11: no “city break” destinations. that’s right, bruges is out. watch the film instead.

12: no PowerPoint. goes without saying.

13: work is evil and must be punished.

14: no revisiting previous destinations, except in the case of weddings.

15: any changes / additions to these regulations are to be proposed unilaterally by a powerful and unrefusable majority / clique.

b

Draw for next year

We’ve started looking out for stuff already.

(Oh, and if you must: THAT video. NSFW)