Link Dump #2
America Without a Middle Class
12 Days of Christmas, by Carol Ann Duffy
Ohio becomes the first US state to execute a prisoner using a single drug
Pizza napoletana awarded special status by EU
British Muslims feel the most patriotic in Europe, survey claims
Belfast’s Christmas Continental Market
Mulled Wine. Churros. The cold and the rain. It’s gotta be the Christmas Market outside City Hall, Belfast.
Here’s some photies.
Link Dump #1
The first in an irregular series where I post bookmarks I’ve saved…
The Ampersand – a whole blog devoted to the “&” symbol
Feeling Sorry for Dubai?
Maybe just a little? Don’t be. I read a great article on HuffPo the other day, “The Dark Side of Dubai“.
A few highlights of what Dubai is *actually* like…
- You can get put in jail for having a cheque bounce. For up to 3 years.
- If you have to go to court, better hope you speak Arabic.
- If you have any debts at all, you can’t leave the country. Which means you’re effectively imprisoned in Dubai.
- Who built Dubai? Not the expats… it was immigrants, mainly from south Asia, brought to Dubai with promises of an easy life and riches. The reality is far from that. Bad pay, passports confiscated, long work hours in searing heat and squalid living conditions are typical of a Dubai construction worker.
So if you can go to jail in Dubai for a cheque bouncing, what happens if you can’t pay back a $60bn loan? Oh, nothing? Funny that.
Finally! Some Truth!
Sarah Palin admits to liking porn and unprotected sex. Oh, and that she’s a quitter and she’s naive. Tee hee!
Bad Romance
You’ve got to hand it to Lady Gaga – she knows how to make money from the gays.
- Catchy chorus that’s barely audible? Check.
- Some words spoken in badly pronounced French? Check.
- Hideous costumes? Check.
- Drag queen look? Check.
- A dance routined that easily perfected by baby-gays on YouTube? Check.
- Claps? Yep.
- Risque part with fireworks bra and dead body? Check.
It’s quite a good song though, isn’t it…
Btw, did I mention she’s releasing a new “album”, even though it’s essentially her old album with some new tracks tacked on?
Things That I’ve Liked for the Past Few Weeks
1. Florence and the Machine’s album. I heard it at a friend’s house a few weeks ago. Go listen to it on Spotify. I dare you not to fall in love with the track “Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)”.
2. The Thick of It on BBC Two. I’ve never watched this show before. It’s Armando Iannucci’s satirical political comedy. Sort of like The Office, only less difficult to watch, and funnier. It follows the Department for Social Affairs and Citizenship, and it’s head Nicola Murray. Currently trying to get my hand on the first 2 series…
3. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. Great biography of Abraham Lincoln. Wanted to find out more about him, as Obama has styled himself as a modern day Lincoln. Still plowing through it (it’s long), but it’s a great and easy read.
And what I didn’t like…
Voter’s repealing the gay marriage law in Maine. One day, hopefully, the bigots will disappear and realise that to deny happiness and equality to people is, frankly, sickening.
Billionaires for Wealthcare Prank Health Insurance Industry Conference
Last post for today, I promise. (Can you tell I’m avoiding writing my report?)
Saw this on the Rachel Maddow Show on Friday, it’s sheer genius:
From their website:
Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, HMO lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system.
We’ll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to health insurance, if we ain’t broke, why fix it?
Yes, they’re taking the piss :)
Reviews: The World’s Wife and Things for Mac
The World’s Wife, Elmwood Hall, Belfast, Wednesday 21st October
This week, as part of volunteering as a FOH person for the Belfast Festival, I got the opportunity to see a performance called The World’s Wife. I’ll be honest, when I signed up to help out, I wasn’t too sure what it was about. It was a one woman show, the fantastic Linda Marlowe, performing poems from Carol Ann Duffy’s collection The World’s Wife. The “wifes” featured range from The Kray Sisters, Mrs Faust, Frau Freud to Salome. I’m not a great fan of poetry, but this performance was gripping and very entertaining.
Things for Mac
I’ve been awful at planning my time for the last few weeks and I’ve been relying heavily on iCal to help me organise my todos and lectures, meetings, lab time etc. It’s calendaring capabilities are marvellous – it’s clean, simple and works. And it syncs with my iPhone and Google Calendar. However, when it comes to todos, it lacks. I searched around online to find a suitable app that had a nice interface, worked well and fast on Snow Leopard, and had the ability to sync with my iPhone. Having discovered that there is a genre of apps available called GTD (for Getting Things Done), I stumbled on Things for Mac. It’s $50 for a licence (about £30), so it’s quite steep. I’d recommend downloading the trial and see how you get along with it.
It’s a neat little app. When your fire it up you’re presented with an inbox, where you can put todos that you are going to file later, and then there’s the “Focus” section. Here you can view all the todos that you want to focus on today (complete with dock badge counter), next, scheduled, someday and projects. For me, projects is probably one of the most useful functions, as you can break a project down into individual tasks and work through them. Another great feature is the ability to add tags to your todos, to make them easier to sort through quickly.
If you’re unsatisfied with iCal’s abilities to sort todos, Things is definitely worth a try. There’s also an iPhone app available, which I may download and review at a later date. As it is my laptop is with me all the time anyway…
Fairly Boring Update.
Dear Blog,
I’m so for neglecting you for the last couple of weeks but I’ve been busy (read: I’m shite at organising my time).
So, what’s been happening in the life of Pogoism? Well, not a lot. Actually… a lot. Too much. It’s just really boring and I haven’t done anything blog worthy.
I’m now entering my 5th week of final year. It’s waaaay more work than I expected, but still, it’s fun. I’m working in the new(ish) Cancer Research centre at Queen’s. Other than that I’ve been doing a load of stuff for the LGBT Society, which I somehow got roped into being Treasurer for, volunteering at the Belfast Festival and just generally not being not being particularly social. I’ve managed to avoid going out at all so far this semester, mainly because I don’t really know anyone here any more. All the people I used to hang out with here have mostly all graduated and moved on to do Master’s courses or just relocated. I don’t really mind too much, ‘cos I’m probably leaving next July anyway, but it’s not still not great…
Umm, what else. Nothing much really. Just plodding along, getting on with it all.
Went to see Zombieland the other night. Not a great fan of those kind of movies, but it was actually surprisingly good. If you’re stuck for a movie to go see in the next few week, and just want to see something fun, it’s a good pick.
As for music, been listening to a lot of Death Cab for Cutie recently. I went to see them in Reno in July and they were really good, but I hadn’t ever really sat down and listened to the properly. Their songs on the surface seem fairly bland, that dull, generic indie sound. But for me, the thing that makes them stand out are their lyrics. They’re hauntingly simple, yet so beautiful. Example: Grapevine Fires. Seems like it’s just a song about the wildfires in So Cal in 2007, but… well, you listen and see what you make of it.
Ok, I’ve rambled enough. I only really blogged to put off going to Tesco, so off I go…
