We're Number 37!

Another YouTube video about the American Healthcare Debate. I suppose the NHS in the UK "could do better", but we do get our system for around half the percentage of GDP that the Americans do.

The French pay 11% of GDP for their highly regarded set-up compared to 8% in Britain.

You Know It Makes Sense

As you know, I don't often find the time to blog these days but the debate about health care reform that rages in the US and simmers in the UK has finally overcome my natural lethargy. This brilliant little animated video spells out in terms that are difficult to argue with why the United States should provide universal health care that is funded by taxation and not by greedy, self-serving insurance companies. When you stand at the top of the Empire State Building in NYC some of the most lavish buildings you can see are owned by insurance companies, which should be telling us something!

These companies and their right-wing supporters have a lot to lose if Obama is successful: hence the vitriol and scare-mongering that is coming forth just now. America makes a big thing of its Christian values, but many US citizens apparently don't see that failing to provide large chunks of the population with health care is inconsistent with this.

On this side of the Atlantic, I am pleased to see that the debate is showing up major fault lines in Cameron's façade of the new "caring, sharing" Conservative Party. The Tories' commitment to the British NHS has been shown to be a total sham, but I don't know if this will be enough, in itself, to lose them the next election, unfortunately! Labour's increasing attempts to part-privatise the NHS in recent years have been shameful, and a genuine commitment to a publicly funded system, free of the need to pander to the demands of shareholders in private companies, might allow voters in the next election to chose a party that appreciates the true values upon which the NHS is based.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Another Vimeo video: this time with an astronomical theme. The galactic centre of the Milky Way captured with a modified Canon EOS 5D.

Pretty awe-inspiring, huh?

Beards on a Boat

This video is from the World Beard and Moustache Championships (I kid you not) which was held at Anchorage, Alaska on May 23rd.

Maybe I should enter for the one in Trondheim, Norway in 2 years time?

DEADLINE post-it stop motion

I love this little stop motion video. If you want to know how it was made, there is a video of that as well.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

This is an incredible little video from Vimeo of some totally crazy guys wingsuit base jumping in Norway. I couldn't even stand at the edge of these cliffs, far less throw myself off them like these maniacs.

It takes all kinds to make a World, I suppose...

More on the Graffiti Theme

Papergirl #3 from Papergirl on Vimeo.
This group, rather than spray painting or puting up posters, chooses to cycle round and give their art work away.

Interesting concept...

C215

When we were in Venice recently we came across four brilliant pieces of graffiti with a mysterious logo attached to each one. I uploaded the images to Flickr in the following order: 1, 2, 3, 4. Almost as soon as I uploaded the last picture my Flickr contact Simon Crubellier from London recognised the pictures as the work of a stencil graffiti artist called C215. Simon added the tag c215 to the picture and within minutes C215 had asked me to add the pictures to his group on Flicker devoted to his art.

The video shows C215 giving London the same treatment: simply amazing!

Yet another example of how wonderful the Internet can be...

The First PostSecret Picnic

I first posted about PostSecret almost 4 years ago. It is interesting to see how the concept has not only persisted but developed. The power of the Internet to connect people in various ways fascinates me and gives me far more hope for the future of the human race than I get from listening to the jabbering of most of our politicians.

But then I am on old cynic...

I'm On A Boat (ft. T-Pain) - Clean

Hilarious take off of certain music videos----you know the sort of thing.

Beautifully done!

Little Red Riding Hood For The Electronic Age

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Another brilliant little Vimeo Video.

It Makes You Think 4

Three quotes relevant to the current economic crisis:

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers." Richard Feynman.

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." Thomas Jefferson.

"Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt." Herbert Hoover.

It seems history really does repeat itself...

Squirrel Attack!

I find this quite funny, but certain aspects of my sense of humour are quite puerile.

You have been warned...

Bathtub IV

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I periodically post videos hosted on the site Vimeo. Here is another brilliant little film created by a guy called Keith Loutit.

Duplicity

Went with Wosog to see the film "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. The latter is quite "flavour of the month" just now, and we also recently enjoyed his film "The International". I've always thought Julia Roberts was a pretty good actor with one of those faces that looks beautiful one minute then not so the next.

Generally, with films like this, I have to rely on Wosog to keep me up to speed with the plot, but I think I followed most of it. All in all it was an entertaining little film that is worth a visit.

Taking the Biscuit

The current global financial crisis has thrown up so many examples of how morally bankrupt, if not financially bankrupt, our financial institutions have become. I have referred previously to the outrage in the UK about bailed-out banks continuing to pay staff bonuses and the ongoing "disquiet" about Fred Goodwin's pension. I think in the USA public unhappiness about the bail-outs is all the more palpable because it seems such an "un-American" thing to do.

It is perhaps ironic, then, that probably the worst example of a rescued financial institution, to use the vernacular, "taking the piss" is in the United States. According to this article in the New York Times, the insurance company AIG, which is already under fire from Congress over executive bonuses, is quietly suing the American Government for the return of $306 million in tax payments! This is the same AIG in which the government has an 80 percent stake and into which it has poured nearly $200 billion in an attempt to avert its collapse. Even more incredibly, it appears that AIG is spending taxpayers' money to pursue its case, something it is legally entitled to do!

Words fail me...

Weird but Wonderful 2

The second story that caught my eye in the Sunday Times' Weird but wonderful section concerned attempts to breed Cherry, the last remaining female blue duck in Britain, with either Ben or Jerry, the last remaining UK male blue ducks.

It seems that Ben and Jerry are much less interested in Cherry than they are in each other! According to Paul Stevens, the warden,

"They stay together all the time, parading up and down their enclosure and whistling to each other as a male might do with a female he wants to mate with."

One wonders if a civil partnership is in the offing?

Weird but Wonderful 1

The Sunday Times' "Weird but wonderful" section has again provided me with howls of laughter this week. Their first story concerned a Shetland pony called Mayflower in the Southampton area.

Apparently, ramblers in the area have been putting in repeated calls to the local fire brigade in the mistaken belief that Mayflower has been stuck in the mud on the banks of the River Test. However, as soon as the fire engines and specialist lifting equipment arrives, the pony calmly walks off! What the ramblers don't seem to appreciate is that Mayflower, like other members of her breed, has SHORT LEGS!

The owner has considered putting up a sign to warn the ignorant walkers of their foolishness, but has avoided doing so in case one day Mayflower actually DOES get stuck in the mud.

George Carlin - Saving the Planet

I really like stand-up comedy. I've already seen Jack Dee and Omid Djalili live. Later this month Wosog and I are going to see Ed Byrne in concert, and later this year the hilarious Eddie Izzard.

We don't tend to see many American stand-up comedians on the TV in the UK, so I'm not so familiar with them. However I have come across numerous quotations from George Carlin, who, sadly, died last year. The video above I think shows Carlin's intelligence and his ability to "cut through the crap" that we encounter in our day to day life and especially in our exposure to the media. You may not like the way George says things, but you will find it hard to argue against him! Unfortunately, as I say, George died in 2008: I would love to have heard his comments on the global financial crisis!

Here are a few more words from the great man:

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.'"

"Just when I discovered the meaning of life, they changed it."

"By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth."

Well said, George, well said...

This is hilarious!

Experts Agree Giant, Razor-Clawed Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat

Dontcha just love The Onion?