Well, that's one way to cut people from the unemployment line.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

Insert cheap joke exploiting dental/oral nursing...

Great flash game -- Doom Funnel Chasers!

Joe The Peacock's Official Rules Of The Gym

 
Trick or Treat

 
A simple, though clever, tribute to Johnny Carson I've seen over the past few days.

The Final Envelope

In my very cold walk to work today, I passed 3 heating oil trucks making deliveries. At 12 degrees with a stiff wind, the first truck caught my attention, as a good thing bringing heat to our little deep freeze.

The second truck had its hose in the sidewalk, and the driver was sniffing a vent pipe next to the building. Not sure what he was sniffing for, but I am sure there must have been a bit of dog urine in the mix...

As I approached the third truck in front of a big hotel, the driver was telling an olive skinned man standing next to him about his hectic delivery schedule, "after those two, I need to get over to Queens!"
But what struck me was the reply, "Where do you go to reload?"
Maybe not the best choice of words to someone driving a flammable tanker truck around NYC. Not that someone driving a tanker truck around NYC should be telling someone all about his route...

 
Banking for bloggers?

[Origin of pajamas reference.]

Jeez, the Nigerian spammers can't even remember which fake name they are using for the time it takes to write a single scam email!

Hello,

It's very appreciative and also a pleasure to browsed your store or website, i was so glad to reach this through online.

The name is Jennifer Wright, from United States of America, of Bears Creek Road,Austin,TX 78751 USA.

I am opportuned to have a store, located in Lagos, Nigeria, were i sells all kinds of Toys, e.t.c. I was informed by the agent officer over there in Nigeria that most of the admirable interesting goods are running out of stock, so i will need to place an urgent order from your store by purchasing some quality goods to my store over there and i was also informed that you have the best quality to satisfy all the needs.

I will prefer to have business relationship with you or your organisation. Do tell me if you could ship to Lagos, Nigeria, before i place my order and do advise if my payment with these cards are acceptable mode of/for your payments(MASTER,VISA & AMEX CARD).

I will be pleased to read from you, and also to get your positive response.

Best Regards

Catherine Taylor
TX. USA

I heard on the local AM station this morning that Michael Moore's bodyguard got arrested in NYC when he told the airport screeners that he had a handgun on his person. The story went on to report that he had carry permits for Florida & California (California!?), but none for NYS or NYC.

"Guns for me, none for thee" echoes of Rosie O'Donnell abound.

Here's a link to Fox News' coverage of the story.

Sadly, this link marks the second elephant dung reference of the past month on this blog.

AUTEC, for all your automated Sushi Ball Forming Machine needs.

Hey, you ask yourself, how many bulk emails does a long term Yahoo! mail user's bulk email filter weed out in a month?

4,154.

Dec 17, 2004 - Jan 17, 2005.

I'd say maybe another hundred made it through the filter.

What do you do with a public employee heading up the city dog pound after reports of dog abuse abound, including infrequent cleaning of cages, and when cleanings were done it was with a power washer while the pooches were still in their cages?

You'd fire her, right? Maybe put her in a cage for a while & treat her to a bit of power washing herself, if the judge would allow it.

But that's not what they did in Chicago. Nope, In Chicago they changed her job to assistant commissioner overseeing nutrition programs for the city's Department of Aging.

You know the expression, "I wouldn't feed that to a dog," well, I'm not sure how that applies here.

Some bureaucrat who proved unable to take care of stray dogs will now oversee nutrition programs for the city's Department of Aging.

Mind boggling.

 
The Instapundit offers the following question:READER GINGER TAYLOR WANTS CAMERA ADVICE

I am the mother of an absolutely beautiful autistic little boy. Getting pictures of him actually looking at the camera is difficult as his eye contact is poor and when he does look at the camera it is only for a second.

The digital I have, as well as every friends' camera I have used, all take too long to snap the pic. The only one I have tried that is quick enough was a friends Nikon D100 which I fell in LOVE with, but I don't have a grand or two to drop on a camera.

Any suggestions for me? I want to be able to get a good picture of my boy more than a few times a year.

If shutter lag is her primary concern, here's my suggestion:

Buy a few Fuji/Kodak disposable cameras, real brand names ones, with a flash. Heck, the Fuji's are under $5 a piece if you buy them 10 at a time.

So long as the flash is charged on these, the shutter lag time on these is orders of magnitude smaller than the lag time from almost all non-SLR digital cameras.

Sure, you'll get red-eye, and harsh shadows, but the same is true of digital Point & Shoots.

If she wants digital photos to go with her prints, simply pay the extra few bucks that Walmart, and most other photo labs, charges to provide a CD of .jpg scans.

Or, since she suggests that she'd be comfortable with an SLR but for the cost, pick up some used 35mm gear on ebay. Film is far from dead, and one of the great advantages film has over digital is affordable speed.

Simply for indexing: Photos of every page in the brochure for a 1996 Lincoln Mark VII.

Tony Pierce's writing on his lost love this week have been blogging at its best.

 
Too bad for Sandy, but his future guards will check him a might more carefully than did the guards at the archives.

Nice to see Swingline exploiting the unintentional marketing of Milton's red Swingline stapler from the movie Office Space.

Discover the stapling star of any office space - the bold head-turning design and legendary performance of Swingline's Rio Red Stapler. It puts the 'fun' back in the 'functional!' Workhorse 747 architecture - with increased strength and amazing reliability. Exceptionally durable die-cast all metal construction.

Pictures of an ex-Ferrari reportedly owned by Uday Hussein.

[Found via the decidely not-safe-for-work terpsboy.com]

 
Some goodies from Craigslist

• Thank you for yet another 6 gallon bucket of popcorn.
• Fighting back against a crammer using a fax-bomb.
• Top 10 annoying customer types in Denny's at 3am.

 
Interesting to see who has bothered to link to VW Bank USA so far.

Maybe I was right about the unlikelihood of success by an online bank that offers lousy rates and simply hopes to get by through trading upon its parent corporation's perceived hipness.

 
Continuing my amazon blogging for the day.

Twenty two reviews for a damn bottle opener, several of which seem to deal with its added functionality as a personal defense weapon.

I wonder how long until Boston or New York City decide to ban posession of unregistered KitchenAid Bottle Openers?

As clever as amazon.com might be, I guess it isn't clever enough to remind its creator that 10 of the 18 items on his wish list are discontinued.

Perhaps not the greatest marketing idea, "Amazon.com, we've got 44 percent of what we sell that you want in stock."

OR, "Amazon, we've got what you want 44 one hundredths of the time."

I remember years ago hearing an old woman on NPR give the key to leading a happy life, "Collect something," she said. "I don't care if it's salt shakers, records, spoons or trading cards, just collect something. It isn't what you collect, it's the process of collecting something, anything really, that brings the happiness."


I wonder if her advice applies to this guy's collection.

History of Contraception Museum. The elephant dung was no trouble at all. When the circus came to town, Percy Skuy simply showed up with a bucket and politely asked the keeper if he could collect a few droppings.

The mule's earwax? Now, that was a challenge. Skuy asked a friend in Mexico for advice. A few weeks later, the friend sent back photos of two ranch hands struggling to hold a mule while a third extracted a clot of wax from a hairy ear. Skuy set the greasy blob on black velvet.

Another exhibit successfully mounted in the History of Contraception Museum.

In a 40-year quest to document the science - and superstition - of family planning through the ages, Skuy has sought out weasel testicles and hairy spiders, carrot seeds, candy wrappers and a bone from an all-black cat. He has collected hundreds of IUDs and cervical caps. He has preserved the first experimental female condoms and the short-lived "cerviscope" of the 1960s, an awkward device designed to help women monitor their fertility.

 
Wow!

Rizal, 23, was rescued by a passing Malaysian cargo ship after surviving for eight days afloat on an uprooted tree in the Indian Ocean, living off floating coconuts and rainwater, Malaysian officials said on Wednesday.

 
Fake word of the day:

Prepology: To apologize for something bad before you do it.

I'm sorry that I'm going to punch you in the face.

Note, that after prepologizing, any and all following apologies ring hollow since the prepologizer clearly knew the nature of their action(s) before taking them.

Moof!, the story behind Technical Note 31.

Proposed school to cheat teach charlatanism chiropractic angers FSU Med School Faculty

"This is plainly ludicrous!!!!"
...
The threatened resignations - at least seven to date, all from assistant professors who work part time - reflect a belief among many in the medical establishment that chiropractic is a 'pseudo-science' that leads to unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments. Professors are even circulating a parody map of campus that places a fictional Bigfoot Institute, School of Astrology and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory near a future chiropractic school.

That's my kind of snarky protest!

You can't blame them, just how valid can a healing art be that was entirely invented by one guy who just happened to be somewhat of a con-man.