January 9, 2016

Who is Hillary trying to impress with this?

Please. Someone tell me this is not a real Hillary ad...

If so, she's gone so far off the rails that she must be way off in the Atlantic by now, hanging out with the Titanic.

January 5, 2016

The disappointed tourists of Yelp - CNN.com

(CNN)The online review site Yelp isn't just a place to compare local dry cleaners or find out if anyone, ever, has patronized the shady, constantly shuttered takeaway joint on your corner.

It's also a handy tool for the international tourist, with users leaving feedback on everything from the quality of the eggs at Las Vegas casino breakfast buffets to the lines at Paris's Musee du Louvre.

Yelp's users are, primarily, an enthusiastic and appreciative bunch.

"Michelangelo, you really outdid yourself," user Kathryn W. of Long Island notes approvingly of the Sistine Chapel, in a characteristically positive review.

But for a small but vocal minority of Yelp's unhappiest travelers, the world is full of disappointing discoveries.

Such as:

.....

Old things sometimes look old

New York's Statue of Liberty: "As a proud American I wanted to love this, but was grossly underwhelmed... Old Lady Liberty is just that... old."
-- Nicholas H., San Francisco

Rome's Colosseum: "Yes, it looks great at night but put some lights up on that abandoned GM Assembly Plant in Detroit and you'd have about the same thing without any long visitor lines."
-- Marqus R., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Istanbul's Hagia Sophia: "There is nothing much to see inside and the place is falling apart. I get that it is ancient but I have to ask where the entrance fee funds are going."
--Camie T., London


-----> http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/21/travel/yelp-tourists/index.html

January 2, 2016

Ukrainians Disillusioned With Leadership - Gallup

Ukrainians Disillusioned With Leadership

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

17% approve of Poroshenko's job performance
8% confident in their national government
5% say government doing enough to fight corruption

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite signs last year that Ukraine's then-new president was starting to rebuild Ukrainians' trust in their leadership, President Petro Poroshenko is now less popular than his predecessor Viktor Yanukovych was before he was ousted. After more than a year in office, 17% of Ukrainians approve of the job that Poroshenko is doing. This approval rating is down sharply from 47% a few months after his election in May 2014.



Poroshenko's low approval rating largely reflects Ukrainians' disenchantment with their leadership, which many feel has failed to deliver on what protesters demanded when they took to the streets two years ago. Since the Maidan revolution, Ukraine's economy has been in shambles, the Crimea region joined Russia and fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the country's East has claimed more than 9,000 lives.

Although fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists has decreased recently, Gallup's interviews in Ukraine this year took place in July and August, as renewed fighting threatened the shaky truce. Gallup's polls excluded the Donetsk and Luhansk territories, where security continues to be an issue. The excluded areas account for approximately 2% of Ukraine's adult population.



Poroshenko is not popular in any region of Ukraine. He has the fewest fans in the country's Russian-leaning South and East, where one in 10 or fewer approve of the job he is doing. However, Poroshenko notably also has fewer admirers in the West and South and East than Yanukovych did before the revolution. In the Central and North regions (which include Kiev), roughly as many Ukrainians approve of Poroshenko now (21%) as approved of Yanukovych (20%) in 2013.



-----> http://www.gallup.com/poll/187931/ukrainians-disillusioned-leadership.aspx

NOT surprising. There wasn't a single reformer in the "leadership". This is what you get when you back a Chocolate magnate, a bureaucrat whose nickname is "rabbit", a Far-right nationalist, and a boxer. Surprised more people didn't see this joke coming from a million miles away.

December 25, 2015

Christmas Ads (from Europe) Better than you're used to.

December 25, 2015

The Christmas Adventures of Mog the Cat

December 19, 2015

US voters support bombing Aladdin's Agrabah - Al Jazeera English

Bombing Agrabah

Some 30 percent of US Republican primary voters and 19 percent of Democrats who said they would support bombing Agrabah, a fictional nation in Disney's Aladdin animation feature, are sent up on social media for their ignorance.

"Welcome to Agrabah, a city of mystery, of enchantment, and the finest merchandise this side of the river Jordan, on sale today. Come on down". Those are the words that open the Disney animation Aladdin, a feature made in the early nineties. Agrabah, a fictional land, has enjoyed renewed attention as a national survey showed that a not insignificant number of people would support its bombing.



More, more, more!

-----> http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/satire-voters-support-bombing-aladdin-agrabah-151219063937814.html

December 12, 2015

Need Hope? Then you need to click this...

After a year of news stories that produced photos that can often be difficult or disturbing to view, I thought I’d take the time to compose an essay of uplifting images from the past year. The following are images of volunteers at work, expressions of love and compassion, families and friends at play, and assistance being given to those in need. Alternate titles considered were “The Good Side of 2015,” “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” or simply “News Photos That Won't Make You Despair for the Fate of Humanity.” One of my favorite quotes is from Mr. Rogers, who once said that when he was young and saw scary things in the news, “My mother would say to me ‘look for the helpers—you will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world."



A Danish policeman plays a guessing game with a migrant girl at the E45 freeway north of Padborg, Denmark, on September 9, 2015. Many migrants, mainly from Syria and Iraq, were crossing through Denmark, trying to reach Sweden to seek asylum there. The police had closed the freeway for security reasons. #

Wish they would use the term refugee, not migrant though...



Brooke and Cameron Rigby play Christmas music on the street in honor of a terminally-ill boy named Evan Leversage, with all proceeds being donated to the Leversage family in St. George, Ontario, Canada, on October 24, 2015. Evan had been living with inoperable brain cancer since he was two years old. His family organized an early Christmas celebration for him, with a full parade, in case seven-year-old Evan did not live to celebrate his last Christmas day on the traditional date of December 25. Evan passed away on December 6, about one month after his early Christmas. #



Boys walk home for lunch from school in the village of Kogelo, west of Kenya's capital Nairobi, on July 16, 2015. #

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/12/hopeful-images-from-2015/420066/ (Pic heavy)

December 11, 2015

Dogs That Immediately Regretted Their Poor Life Choices

Many more here! -----> http://imgur.com/a/0blzT

December 10, 2015

In what country are 70% of science and engineering students women?

Hint: It's not the USA.

Damn those Muslims. They're terrorizing men, who should have a permanent guarantee to this type of work...

⬅︎ ⬅︎ ⬅︎ for the sarcastically challenged...


Set To Take Over Tech: 70% Of Iran's Science And Engineering Students Are Women - Forbes

70% of of Iran’s science and engineering students are women, and in a small, but promising community of startups, they’re being encouraged to play an even bigger role.

The common myth about women in Iran is that they are seen, but not heard, that they’re not permitted to drive, that they are second-class citizens, and that entrepreneurship and positions of power are out of reach. These notions are wrong. For years, women in Iran have owned and managed businesses, many of them in male dominant industries like oil and gas, construction, mining, and now tech. And now, with such a high number graduating with degrees in science and engineering, there’s a push to get women more involved in Iran’s blossoming startup scene.

20-year old Ghonche Tavoosi recently practiced pitching her startup Lendem, to a group of VC’s, including Dave McClure of 500 Startups at iBridges, a conference supporting Iran’s tech community. Through Lendem’s platform, friends, colleagues and neighbors lend each other stuff, like phone charging cables, and other items. The website keeps track of who’s got what, reminds people to give items back, and guarantees their return. Tavoosi pitched well. McClure was impressed, though he won’t make any investments in Iran until sanctions are lifted.


Entrepreneur Ghonche Tavoosi (Photo courtesy of subject)

In an industry just starting to emerge, women are at the forefront, even if small in numbers. Two sisters, Reyaneh and Bahareh Vahidian, helped organize the first Startup Weekend for Women in Tehran encouraging female entrepreneurs to share ideas and network. Iran’s young women are considered trailblazers in the tech sector, but generations have come before them, including pioneers like Behnaz Aria.

-----> http://www.forbes.com/sites/amyguttman/2015/12/09/set-to-take-over-tech-70-of-irans-science-and-engineering-students-are-women/

December 7, 2015

Stolen Dutch masterpieces held for ransom by far-right Ukrainian militants with links to government

A collection of Dutch 17th century art stolen a decade ago was found in a villa in east Ukraine and offered for sale by a far-right militia, a museum has claimed.

The 24 paintings and silver artefacts were valued at €10m ($10.8m; £7m) when they were stolen from the Welfries Museum in Hoorn a decade ago. Two art detectives hired by the museum claim they were offered for sale for €5m by a member of a far-right militant with alleged ties to an MP and former senior security official.

.....

"There are very strong signs that the paintings are now being offered to other parties or have even been sold," Geerdink said. "Given the paintings' fragile condition, it is already one minute to midnight, or even one past midnight."

Art detective Alex Omhoff told IBTimes UK: "All efforts to get the paintings back were made. Dutch politicians were involved. Our foreign minister asked the Ukrainian president for help and we tried by negotiating with these people to get the art back, but unfortunately money is more important to them than historically important pieces of art."


-----> http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/stolen-dutch-masterpieces-offered-sale-by-ukrainian-far-right-militia-1532191


Among the pieces stolen in the 2005 heist was Jan Claesz Schilderij's
Rietschoof, Gezicht op het Oostereiland - Westfries museum