Author: Nate

News of the Weird: “El Caganer”

Pooping Peasant Popular in Spain

‘El Caganer,’ the Great Defecating Peasant Increasingly Found on Mantelpieces in Spain

BARCELONA, Spain Dec 20, 2006 (AP)— The Virgin Mary. The three kings. A few wayward sheep. These are the figures one expects to find in a traditional Christmas nativity scene. Not a smartly dressed peasant squatting behind a rock with his rear-end exposed.

Yet statuettes of “El Caganer,” or the great defecator in the Catalan language, can be found in nativity scenes, and increasingly on the mantelpieces of collectors, throughout Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, where for centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities.

I couldn’t MAKE this stuff up, folks. More craziness from the same site: Caller impersonates cop, convinces McDonalds crew to abuse coworker

Thailand in the economic news

No idea what to make of this, but in case it’s of interest to any of my readers:

Thailand Abandons Limits on Foreign Stock Investments (Update6)

By Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Margo Towie

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Thailand scrapped currency controls on international stock investors one day after their imposition by the central bank prompted the biggest stock market plunge in 16 years.

The government lifted a requirement that banks lock up 30 percent of new foreign-currency deposits for a year for funds earmarked for stocks, Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula said in Bangkok. The rule, intended to slow a 16 percent gain in the Thai currency this year that threatened exports and economic growth, sparked investor selling that wiped out $23 billion of market value in Thai stocks.

“It’s the economy, stupid.”

Via AMERICAblog:
Wholesale prices surge; Housing rebounds

WASHINGTON – Inflation at the wholesale level surged by the largest amount in more than three decades in November, reflecting higher prices for gasoline and a host of other items.

The Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach the consumer, was up 2 percent last month, the biggest advance since a similar increase in November 1974, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

Economists had been expecting a rebound in wholesale prices following two months of big declines. However, the 2 percent jump was four times bigger than the 0.5 percent increase they had forecast. Even excluding volatile energy and food prices, core inflation posted a 1.3 percent advance, the biggest jump in 26 years.

Emphasis above is mine. What a great economy we’ve got, eh? Between this and the quagmire in Iraq war, Bush is looking like he is trying to out-Nixon Nixon.

Another step towards an effective artificial heart

Man with no pulse considered a medical breakthrough

PETER RAKOBOWCHUK
Canadian Press

MONTREAL — A 65-year-old Quebec man who received a new long-term mechanical heart last month is being described as the only living Canadian without a pulse.

Dr. Renzo Cecere implanted the “Heartmate II” mechanical heart into Gerard Langevin in an three-hour operation Nov. 23.

Officials at the McGill University Health Centre say the device, which is about the size of a flashlight battery, could last up to 10 years.

via RASSF

Recent roundup, Monday edition

1) One from Friday: The Hippie Era Just Won’t Die via Mydd

2) An interesting question to applies to “progressive” 2008 candidates: “Who’s with us in a bar fight?” (the article is also posted on Mydd)

Today’s roundup.

1) Fun with google suggest.

2) Good commentary on drug legalization.
Prohibition: a crippling habit

There is only one way to end the misery of addiction revealed by the investigation into the Ipswich murders: legalise the drugs.

…the comments are as much worth reading as the article.

3) Via RASSF: http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

4) Also via RASSF, alternate possibilities for the upcoming Hobbit film:
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20061126
http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/images/comics/dorktower537.gif
http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/images/comics/dorktower538.gif

Today’s big news.

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died today. Good riddance.

“Spelling! That’s where I’m a viking!”

The “webmaster console” feature on Google is interesting.

In my earlier post “I’m simultaneously appalled and amused…“, I misspelled appalled as “apalled” and at least at one point I was averaging the 8th highest ranking use of the mispelling. I’ve just now fixed the title.

This is not my only misspelling that they seem to have caught; in “A keyboard, how quaint“, I seem to be a high-ranking (or should that be “hi-“?) bad speller for “transparant aluminum.” It’s got an “e” and is spelled properly in the article I quoted. (I’ve just fixed that one too.)

This one is going into Word for automatic spell-checking before I post it; I guess I’d better get into the habit of using Firefox rather than IE7 in the future, since that one HAS spell-check-on-the-fly.

Meanwhile, I am much abashed.

Update: errors continue, having included a link but no title for “A keyboard, how quaint”

Privacy? What’s that?

MPAA Kills Anti-Pretexting Bill

A tough California bill that would have prohibited companies and individuals from using deceptive “pretexting” ruses to steal private information about consumers was killed after determined lobbying by the motion picture industry, Wired News has learned.

The bill, SB1666, was written by state Sen. Debra Bowen, and would have barred investigators from making “false, fictitious or fraudulent” statements or representations to obtain private information about an individual, including telephone calling records, Social Security numbers and financial information. Victims would have had the right to sue for damages.

It’s not just about the MPAA, eiher:

Sean Walsh, past president of the California Association of Licensed Investigators and an investigator for 27 years, said his group opposed SB1666 because it was too vague and would have tied the hands of investigators looking into insurance fraud, child support cases and missing children.

It’s for the child-runnnn. Got it.

(via Doom9.org)

We’re not the only one with wingnuts!

See also Kenya (via DailyKos)

Scientist Fights Church Effort to Hide Museum’s Pre-Human Fossils

Leaders of Kenya’s Pentecostal congregation, with six million adherents, want the human fossils de-emphasized.

“The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact,” said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, head of the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya, the Christ is the Answer Ministries.

This all makes me wonder… now that the Iron Curtain is a memory, are there still any active Lysenkoists in Russia?

Modern or post-modern?

Headline: “Finland’s ‘sexiest man’ ends romance with txt msg”

Yawn. Just like Britney, some celebrity scandal. Well, let’s take a look anyway:

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, dubbed Finland’s sexiest man, broke up by text message with the girlfriend he had met on the Internet, she said in a magazine interview.

(emphasis mine) Prime minister??? You mean like their head of state… oops head of their government? (Can’t remember what sort of head of state Finland has.)

Yes, I know the Finns are way cooler than us Yankees, but this one still boggled me. Single PM, dating? Dating from the internet? Dumping the gal via text message? And the US still stuck with the religious reich making noises that it’s inappropriate to have a divorced president… gah, sucks to be us.

“And we wonder why they hate us”

AMERICAblog today: “And we wonder why they hate us“, a great discussion of the right-wing attempt to manufacture a controversy over new Representative Keith Ellison. Very much worth a read.