Wow. I really am gobsmacked on this one.
(and where are the other nine lords?)
Showing posts with label Word of the Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Word of the Day. Show all posts
04 October 2007
03 October 2007
Word of the Day (Dog Catcher Edition)
Wow. Just wow. Just go ahead and make the stuff illegal then. A first offense fine of £260 (that's $530.77) seems pretty crazy. Wonder what truck drivers (I refuse to call him a lorry driver) make over there? Probably cost him a few days pay for that one cigarette.
Not to be left out of the anti-smoking hysteria, the fine city of Calabasas bans indoor smoking, bans outdoor smoking in public areas, they even ban smoking on your own patio if it's too close to public areas, they're proud of themselves over this draconian infringement on personal rights.
My hometown of Santa Monica is virulently anti-smoking as well, though, that's caused some friction with the city's "compassionate" attitude towards homelessness.
Back to the Daily Mail article, my favorite part is that he was caught by the "council dog warden". Their job is to protect citizens from mad dogs and smoking Englishmen, I guess.
09 May 2007
Word of the Day (The Internet DATA Movie Cousin Edition)
Hmmmm, Victorian era German erotica, I would imagine lots of "Stark", "Schneller", and "Tiefer", but then that holds for every era and every language I suppose.
Also, there are worse ways for a library to make money. Offering a recording of passages is probably better than allowing afterhours filming of similar diversions (bodily fluids and books don't mix, at least I hope they don't mix in any library I frequent)
This post's title, by the way, comes courtesy babelfish which translated imdb as "The Internet DATA Movie Cousin", Anne Bennent didn't show up on the English wiki, but she has a short page in German, which I sent through babelfish, and hilarity ensued.
(and no offense meant towards Frau Bennent, but any desired effect of her reading would likely be thwarted if one kept this image in mind)
08 May 2007
Word of the Day (It's In the Game Edition)
Not your usual story for a daily smack of the gob, I know, but how poorly EA performed in 1Q '07 is pretty astounding. The supply problems for the Wii and the high price for the PS3 have had major repurcussions across the industry. Even though the PS2 is still plenty of game system for most people and great games continue to get made for it, it's not shiny and new and folks know there's something better out there, so suddenly what was fun before now seems kind of dull and drab.
The jump from semi-realistic modeling fit for standard definition TVs to uncannily realistic modeling fit for HDTV is a major cost for a company like EA whose games often rely on realism as a selling point. They are having to absorb the cost of developing titles for Xbox360 and PS3, even while the installed user base for both those consoles remains comparatively tiny. Meanwhile the Wii has developed a substantial following, but given the oddball control scheme and appeal to non-traditional gamers, developing titles for the Wii takes a completely different mindset than what EA is used to cultivating.
EA will bounce back, gaming isn't a fad that will go away, guys in their 30s have grown up with consoles in their houses, and most continue to buy each new console and games, so as gamers mature, so does the market for games.
Hopefully they've banked enough funds during the fat years to survive the transition, if not they'll be an attractive takeover target for one of the bigger behemoths in the industry.
05 May 2007
Word of the Day (Cinco de Mayo Edicion)
I would have done a Mexican themed gobsmacking in honor of Cinco de Mayo, but our neighbor to the north taunts me so with stories of gobsmackingness.
To say that Canada Post were acting like pussies wouldn't be entirely unfair.
When this letter carrier went to his supervisor and requested to have this house stricken from his/her route for the reason given, the proper response would have been to laugh loudly in his/her face and if the request was timed just so, a long and voluminous spit take spewing hot coffee would have been in order.
Instead, the customer is forced to pick up his mail at the post office.
This serves to answer my question from yesterday, rather than being too hard on Canada, I'm not being hard enough.
04 May 2007
02 May 2007
Word of the Day (The Future Is Now Edition)
I probably shouldn't be gobsmacked at all about this, it's just another step in the evolution of the internet. This part caught my attention, though
"There is a weaving together of entertainment and promotion and marketing," he added. "It's difficult to say where one ends and the other begins."
Locking future generations into the Disney brand. Mickey Mouse Forever! Kids have been marketed to for awhile now, it's nothing new, but it's getting increasingly sophisticated and a touch creepy.
(also, I can't help getting the feeling that some folks who might later end up being on Dateline might also find this new service attractive)
01 May 2007
Word of the Day
My theory regarding Robert Horry is that he is a voodoo priest. During the last five minutes of key playoff games, he calls down the spirit of Pete Maravich and uses those shooting skills when needed.
Of course this comes at a high cost, which is why he's a seemingly mediocre player the rest of the time, and acts as if he's in his mid-50s rather than mid-30s.
His legend grows.
He presents a difficult conundrum for folks who get to vote for the Hall of Fame. His stats don't justify consideration, but he's collected a series of moments and has been a contributor on some amazing teams, and he holds some important playoff records (2nd most games played, most 3 point shots made, 6 rings with 3 teams). He'll get votes, he should at least have a little exhibit, even if he's not a hall of fame level player, he continues to have a noteworthy career.
(of course, what's really gobsmacking is that I'm a year older than him)
30 April 2007
Word of the Day (Media Edition)
Oh, wait, the news that newspaper circulation continues to plummet is actually the opposite of gobsmacking.
What is the opposite of gobsmacking anyway? Gobsatisfying? Gobkissing? Gobcarressing?
Also, somebody with trouble getting "it" quoted in the article
"While newspaper marketing practices continue to focus strongly on sustaining the core readership, newspapers are working hard to leverage the brand power of the core product to attract readers to their print and online publications that serve advertisers," said NAA president John Sturm.
So, Mr. Sturm (is his VP Mr. Drang?) feels the problem is marketing based and not, oh I don't know, maybe have something to do with the content being provided.
Might the downturn have something to do with the general non-news status of many of the news articles that get published and the frequent tendency for "news" stories to mix in the worldview of the editors and journalist who some studies have shown come from a narrow elite of liberal groupthinkers?
The papers that are more "just the facts" are doing better than the ones that try and tell you what to think about what they report as they are reporting it.
I have no objection to paper having an editorial outlook, but that outlook should stick to the editorial page, in the actual articles, they shouldn't frequently distort facts to reflect the bias of the newsroom.
That this distortion is finding a smaller audience over time shouldn't surprise anyone, yet few in the industry seem to think that the real problem is the problem, instead they just have to learn how to talk to younger folks better, and somehow better marketing will make all the structural faults that have crept into newsgathering disappear.
Writing better copy would be a start, if the nakedly biased reporting was also good writing then I would probably still read the paper, but on top of being biased the crap that is written is crap, and if I'm going to be insulted, I expect to at least be entertained.
29 April 2007
Word of the Day (You Call This Journalism? Edition)
The AFP, being unbiased purveyors of the truth . . . ,
or not.
(no by-line, but I wouldn't be surprised if The Goracle himself had written it)
28 April 2007
27 April 2007
Word of the Day (Time Capsule Edition)
If I really were Judge Kozinski (which I still will neither confirm nor deny), would I really find this story gobsmacking?
26 April 2007
Word of the Day (Important Scientific Inquiry Edition)
Did I say gobsmacking, I meant lipsmacking, math is relevant to everything in life, if they used more examples like this in high school and college, there wouldn't be a fratboy who wasn't a math major.
25 April 2007
Word of the Day (Not Thinking Things Through Edition)
Though I favor legalizing the stuff, I must admit that habitual use seems to have an adverse effect on decision making.
24 April 2007
Word of the Day (Steve Capus Edition)
Almost made it through the day with an unsmacked gob, but then Steve Capus opened his mouth.
I'm not calling for any boycotts of advertisers, or suggest how you receive your news, but I know that I will likely never again watch NBC Nightly News, but then Nightly Newses ceased being a habit personally sometime in the mid 90s (about the same time I started using the internet regularly).
(network Nightly Newses are too slow, too uninformative, too biased to be of any use, I don't need a filter for my news, I'll find the stories on my own, I don't need the likes of Steve Capus deciding what's newsworthy)
Also, I'll refrain from watching Oprah to see the context in which his comments were made, there are somethings I will not do, watching an 'Oprah tackles a serious issue of the moment' episode is one of them.
(dumb self-involved Oprah episodes (like ear piercing, or travels with Gayle) can be fun, these other kind are infuriating).
23 April 2007
Word of the Day (AP Spreading Cuban Propaganda Edition
Will Weissert of the AP is a dupe, an idiot, or a dishonest jerk who lets his blind hatred of the United States cloud his judgement of the truth.
Funny how totalitarian states always have wonderful standards of living, until their dictator is toppled, then we discover that their governments had been manipulating their statistics.
The CIA World Book relies on the statistics provided by each government, so just citing them as a source for a stat doesn't mean that the numbers are honest.
Compare the statistics on the two Koreas. South Korean statistics compared to North Korean numbers are very similar across the board. The one major difference is infant mortality which is 3x higher in North Korea. Why they choose to admit that number and not the others is a mystery, but one doesn't have to look too hard at the two places to come to the quick conclusion that these numbers being so close isn't exactly reality based, and might have a lot to do with lies and propaganda being put forth by a totalitarian dictator.
Just look at the plunge life expectancies took across the former Soviet Union after its fall, some of that was dislocation and an increase in drug and alcohol abuse, but a larger portion of that plunge was also more honest numbers.
I say this story is the worst kind of BS imaginable, the Cuban government is lying, and the AP is either incompetent or untrustworthy, either way, they are not to be believed on stories (more like fables) with regards to Cuba.
22 April 2007
21 April 2007
20 April 2007
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