"I am a Pfuscher baby so why don´t you kill me?"

Solltet ihr in der Wohnung Installationsarbeiten haben und einen Pfuscher suchen, dann kann ich euch schon einmal von einem abraten.

Im 14. Bezirk in Wien beim Obi arbeitet anscheinend ein Herr der über die Arbeit beim Obi seine Kunden aufgabelt. Er kommt mit dem Spruch, dass er nebenbei Selbstständig in der Installationsbranche arbeitet. Das ist ja jetzt nichts Schlechtes. Denn wenn man einen guten Pfuscher findet, kann man sich immer glücklich schätzen. Nur dieser Mann kann dieses Handwerk nicht gelernt haben. Denn so schlecht und ahnungslos ist bestimmt keiner, der es als Beruf gelernt hat.

So passierte es bei Bekannten. Sie benötigten dringend Hilfe. Sie mussten eine alte Heizung entfernen und dadurch den Zulauf und den Ablauf verbinden. Die Heizung ist nämlich mit den anderen Heizungen in der Wohnung seriell geschalten, kann man sagen. Der Pfuscher von Penzing sollte mit sogenannten "Lötfittings" die Stelle überbrücken.

Wenn man das Material plus die 5 Minuten Lötarbeit zusammenrechnet, was ein Professionist getan hat, dann käme man auf einen Preis zwischen € 3,- und € 5,-. Ein "Lötfitting" kostet zwischen 15 Cent/Stück und 40 Cent/ Stück. Rechnet man dann noch die 5 Minuten Lötarbeit hinzu, die laut des Professionisten auch schlecht gemacht wurde, kommt man auf satte € 3,- bis € 5,-. Hätte dieser Mann jetzt € 20 verlangt wäre es für alle Beteiligten nicht so schlimm gewesen.

Aber der Mann verlangte satte €50,-. Eine schöne Gewinnspanne, wenn man sich überlegt das der „Selbstständige Instalateur Pfuscher“ den Betrag Brutto für Netto bekommt

]]> http://gossipstyle.wordpress.com/?p=431 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:20:34 +0000 il Gossipsta http://gossipstyle.wordpress.com/?p=431 Dopo gli ultimi due flop, Take A Bow e Hate That I Love You, Rihanna si riprende lanciando il sesto singolo che sicuramente non ha niente a che fare con le canzoni precedenti. Stiamo parlando di Distrubia, la nuova song tratta dall'album Good Girl Gone Bad, il cui video è uscito oggi.

Ormai ha conquistato il mondo, a soli 20 anni ha già raggiunto un grandissimo successo.

Fantastica canzone e fantastico video! Gossip Style vi da la possibilità di vederlo in anteprima! Cosa ve ne pare?

Nachdem er in seinem Erstling (welchen ich ebenfalls gelesen habe) noch Ein Engländer in Paris war, fühlt sich Stephen Clarke nun offenbar vollständig zum Franzosen mutiert und berichtet erneut über die Franzosen und deren Eigenheiten und Absonderlichkeiten, wobei er sich selbst natürlich außen vor lässt.

Nur leider geht es in dem Buch weder um Franzosen im Allgemeinen oder oder im Besonderen. Es geht auch nicht um das Leben in Frankreich. Es geht ausschließlich um, das muss man ganz klar so sagen: S.ex.
S.ex sells, das ist allgemein bekannt, aber dass man es mit fast allem auch übertreiben kann, sollte sich eigentlich ebenfalls rumgesprochen haben. Clarke lässt absolut keine Gelegenheit aus, sein Alter Ego Paul West mit irgendeiner Französin in die Kiste steigen zu lassen. Erst seine aktuelle Freundin, dann seine Exfreundin und dazwischen gern auch mal die ein oder vernachlässigte französische Ehefrau, die natürlich alle nur auf einen ganzen Kerl wie Paul gewartet haben. Und wenn gerade keine Französin verfügbar ist, dann muss der arme von seinen Trieben gebeutelte Paul immerzu an S.ex denken und daran, wo er die nächste Nummer herbekommt.

Ironie lebt von Übertreibungen, aber Clarke übertreibt derart und mit einem solchen Selbstbewusstsein, dass ich mich beim Lesen des Eindrucks nicht erwehren konnte, dass er alles bierernst meint und allerhöchstens ansatzweise ironisch. Kann auch an mir gelegen haben - aber derartige Übertreibungen verträgt auch Ironie nicht. Spätestens nach dem 2. Kapitel hätte es auch der tumbste Leser begriffen gehabt, aber Clarke hatte offenbar einfach Spaß an der Thematik, so dass das "eigentliche" Thema (Engländer/Franzosen) sehr dezent in den Hintergrund geriet.
Immer wenn man meint, jetzt ist langsam mal Schluss, Paul hat sich die Hörner abgestoßen und man könne sich nun endlich mal der HANDLUNG des Buches zuwenden, nämlich dem Alltagsleben eines Engländers in Paris und der Eröffnung eines englischen Teesalons, wird der arme von seinen Trieben gebeutelte Engländer schon wieder von seiner Lust übermannt und ist spätestens 3 Seiten weiter mit einer französischen Dame im Bett.

Ehrlich, das macht keinen Spaß! Paul protzt unentwegt mit seiner Potenz und damit was für tolle Weibsen er doch erlegt hat. Zwischendurch finden sich vllt 2 Kapitel, in denen er davon mal Abstand nimmt (vllt gerade hormonelles Tief gehabt?), und diese Kapitel sind wirklich amüsant zu lesen. Clarke nimmt augenzwinkernd die Franzosen aufs Korn (ob gekonnt oder nicht kann ich mangels Erfahrung leider nicht sagen), und ich mag seinen trockenen Humor und seine flüssige Erzählweise sehr.
Leider hatte ich davon nicht viel, da mich diese ewigen eingeschobenen Bettgeschichten und das Potenzgeprotze so derart genervt haben, dass sie das Buch gleich um 3 Punkte in der Bewertung runtergerissen haben. Sehr sehr schade, denn aus der Thematik hätte mit Clarkes Erzähltalent einiges mehr gemacht werden können.

"Ein etwas anderer Reiseführer" - ohja, das auf jeden Fall!
Aber doch nicht gleich so anders!

(Der erste Teil war übrigens genauso, nur dass dieses ganze Geprotze da erst in der letzten Hälfte anfing. Ich hatte dummerweise angenommen, Clarke hätte sich nun die Hörner abgestoßen und würde sich im zweiten Teil wieder dem Wesentlichen zuwenden.)

Diese Überschrift fand ich auf Marc Ruefs Blog und mir wurde warm ums Herz. Seitdem das iPhone raus kam frage ich mich was die Leute daran finden. Das erste (1G?) iPhone war meiner Meinung absoluter Schrott.

Ich habe auf meinem 2ten Blog einige Male meinen Unmut über das iPhone ausgelassen. Am Anfang war es wirklich schlimm. Überbezahlte Techniker und Programmierer schafften nicht das was Geeks, Gizmodos, Engageders und Technikwahnsinnige in kürzester Zeit schafften. Ich beschuldigte Steve Jobs auch, dass er absichtlich ein unvollständiges Telefon am Markt schmiss und mit den fleißigen Bienchen im Netz liebäugelte. Dadurch erledigte die Underground Community die Arbeit, welche eigentlich Apple machen hätte sollen und man musste keine teuren Marktstudien durchführen lassen, weil die Community sowieso nur das Ergänzte was sie wollte und brauchte. Großzügigerweise schmiss Steve Jobs noch ein Entwickler Kit ins Netz, damit sich die Geeks leichter taten die Arbeit von Apple zu erledigen. Immerhin kostete das erste iPhone zwischen €300,- und €450,-. Und für den Preis musste man noch daran arbeiten, damit es das konnte was halb so teure Handys anderer Hersteller schon längst konnten. Das ist so, als wenn sie sich ein Auto kaufen das nur einen Gang hat und um schneller zu fahren müssen sie erst die Gangschaltung erfinden und selbst einbauen.

Ich habe dann nach einiger Zeit entschieden auf meinem Blog nicht mehr über das iPhone zu schreiben. Weil es meiner Meinung nach einfach überbewertet wird und eine Kundenverarschung.ist. Marketing ist gut, aber wenn ein Produkt zu 90% aus Marketing besteht ist es seinen Preis nicht wert. Wer sich Apple Produkte kauft muß halt oft in den sauren Apfel beissen. Eine gute Sache hatte das iphone natürlich schon. Die anderen Handyhersteller sind wieder aufgewacht und zeigte wieder etwas mehr Fantasie in der technischen Entwicklung und im Design.

Aber weil ich den netten Bericht auf der Site von Marc gesehen habe, konnte ich mich nicht zurückhalten.

Und warum die Applianer noch so vehement den Applerechner verteidigen, vor allem mit den gleichen Argumenten, die sie auch benutzten bevor Apple eine Intel CPU verwendete und auf vielen Applerechnern Windows lief. Es gibt nun genauso viele Fehler und Viren wie bei Ottonormalverbraucher- PCs. Vor der Intel CPU war Apple wirklich etwas besonderes das ist unbestritten. Aber heute ist es auch nur noch ein Stück PC. Alleine das Design ist noch immer sehr cool.

Hier ein kleiner Aussschnitt aus Marc Rueffs Eintrag.

Ja, ich mag das iPhone nicht. Wieso? Da gibt es viele Gründe. Der nüchternste ist, dass es nur ein Stück Elektronik ist, mit dem man eher unspektakuläre Dinge machen kann. Telefonieren zum Beispiel. Oh ja, man kann damit auch ins Internet. Aber das konnte ich auch schon mit meinem Nokia 9100, das ich vor über 10 Jahren gekauft hatte. Und auch mit dem 9110, das ich rund zwei Jahre spaeter gekauft hatte. Und mit dem 9210, das ich ebenfalls kaufte, aber nach zwei Monaten kaputt machte, weil es nonstop abstürzte. Ach ja, und mit all den anderen Highend-Gadgets, wie sie zum Beispiel sehr schön (ästhetisch und technologisch) durch HTC vorangetrieben wurden.

Ich habe es also schon "gesehen", wie es ist, mit einem multifunktionalen Handy herumzulaufen. Überall Emails lesen, überall Surfen, überall Fotos anschauen, überall Musik hören. Sehr gut. Doch brauch ich das? Nein, eher weniger. Ich bin an einem Arbeitstag rund 10 Stunden im Büro und habe dort einen ADSL-Anschluss, den ich von meinen 3 Rechnern aus bedienen kann. Am Abend nach Hause brauche ich rund 45 Minuten und dann hab ich wieder Internet. Und zwar über eine 10 Mbit Leitung, an der ich 7 Rechner angeschlossen habe. Wieso sollte ich auch noch unterwegs Internet und einen "Rechner" dabei haben? Sowas brauch ich nicht, wie viele andere auch nicht....unbedingt weiterlesen

DVD-Hacker ärgert Apple

iPhone mein Unwort 2008?

Webshop bietet gleich zwei Apple-Klone im Produktportfolio an

iPhone-2.0-Firmware geknackt - Internet und Kommunikation

iPhone: Künstliche Verknappung soll Kauflust anheizen

I would humbly like to remind the Democrats that the definition of pragmatism is:

pragmatism

a philosophical system stressing practical consequences and values as standards by which the validity of concepts are to be determined. � pragmatist, n., adj. � pragmatistic, adj.

poor leadership

a reoccurring political philosophy adopted by the American Democratic Party often characterized by weak-kneed flip-floppery.- flip-flopper n. - kowtowing v.

Democratic message:

Implement armies of blithering technocrats to implement varied solutions simultaneously leading to a greener, cheaper energy more than a decade into the future

Republican Message:

More Drilling = More Oil

Seriously, which is more convincing to you? So is anyone surprised most Americans support offshore drilling? If the Democrats had crystallized their message long ago they wouldn't be forced to choose between the right decision and the popular one.

So, the Democrats must now pick between what is politically pragmatic (as opposed to real pragmatism), aka the the politically expedient solution, versus what is best for the country. While the Democrats may have been put into a hard place I plead to them not to flip-flop. While a vote against the politically unpopular will look bad, the opportunity to prove yourself right against the Republicans in the future will be valuable. Otherwise, it will hang around your necks like the Iraq vote has during the last two presidential elections (cough, cough, Kerry, cough Clinton).

A vote for it, not even a scant month after you vehemently opposed it, will be flip-flopping, and from that there is no recovery. So, Senate Democratic leadership, I remind you of your own recent statements, likely to come out in the media storm ahead.

From Harry Reid on June 18th, in response to Bush's call for an end to the drilling ban:

"This week's flip-flop on offshore oil drilling by President Bush and Senator John McCain is nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy that will do nothing to lower energy prices, and represents another big giveaway to oil companies already making billions in profits."

What he's saying now:

"I�m not knee-jerk opposed to anything,� said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). �We�re willing to work. We haven�t shut our minds to anything.�

Shame, shame Senate Majority Leader. Clair McCaskill what had you said about McCain's call for an end to the ban on the same day?

Democratic Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill said McCain was "shilling for Saudi Arabia" with his campaign proposals on energy policy, "If he were being scored, he would get a 10 for the execution of his flip-flop. He's folded under the pressure of Big Oil."

Is she beginning to tee-toll if Big Oil begins to make other promises?

"If they were showing in good faith that they were drilling on some of the 68 million acres they have now, it might change some of our attitudes,� said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Fine leadership from the Show-Me State. Can I also mention she voted against a bill amendment to open up natural gas drilling off Virginia's coast in March? But certainly majority whip Dick Durbin, the senior Senator from Obama's state, who opposes offshore drilling, will have the sense to stand tall? He certainly lined up behind Obama on June 18th, here are both their remarks:

Obama quickly rejected that idea.

"There's no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you're looking at five years, or more, down the road," he said.

And Democratic leaders in Congress agreed.

"We can't drill our way out of this," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.

Where does the dastardly Dick stand now?

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said that he was open to drilling in new areas but opposed to �offshore drilling if there is any environmental impact.� Durbin reiterated the call for oil companies to drill in areas covered by existing leases first, but then added: �Beyond that, if there is a suggestion of some new area to go into, I�ll look at it.�

Ohhhh, how the mighty flop! Or prepare themselves to anyways.

-Marc-

The news that 50 Cent's website covers is real.  Yes, I believe that the actual news of actual happenings in Hip-Hop and the world are real.  Yes, those are real in order to bait you into the site.  However, when it comes to him and the rest of G-Unit.  That shit is all propaganda. I can't believe none of the G-UNIT news reported on THISIS50.COM unless it has been reported elsewhere.  Thats dumb as fuck.  Why are you preying on your fans like that. If you had a wack album, you had a wack album.  If you got bad press or bad reviews or blogs are hating on you.  Then blogs are hating and you had a bad album and so forth and so on.  What did it for me is when THISIS50.COM started running this report that they were going to do 700k this week.  I was like ehhhh, maybe I can see it happening because they have been killing the internet.  Then I thought why.  Because Buck left, 50 has been running everywhere and this and that.  Not because of the music.  Then the reviews came out.  2 starts, 3 out of 5, one 4 star.  I was like there is no way and hell this album is going to sell 700k in it's first week and people are not cosigning it outside of THISIS50.COM  Then the real number projections come out and the first thing THISIS50.COM says is that there has been an Interscope sabatoge.  And, they will sell 100k.  The fuck?!  Is that the new way to blame your label?  They're making money off of you so they undership you? Riiiiiiight!!!!!  T.O.S. is not an entire flop.  There are some really good songs on there (Straight Outta Southside, Casulties of War and Piano Man) but, it's too bland.  Too far from what made G-UNIT hot in the first place.  Its running in place, its not boundry testing.  It's regular and corny.  The bar is set to high.  and, if you're going to be the bad guy in the game you have to be lights out everytime.  This shit was hot garbage.  Be real, make real music G-UNIT.  Come back down to reality and stop making up news to put on your site.  Thats so corny.  

-Shift Love the Kids

Therefore, for instance, A, Q is dealt by the player. A 3 Q 49is the top board and K J 10 8 4 is the bottom board. The player has 2 pair on the top board and a nut straight on the bottom board. Players leads to show their hands at the ending of the betting on the river and there determined the best hand for the top as well as the bottom board.

Then between them the pot will be get split. If the player has the best hand for both the rows, he/she will scoop the centered pot at the poker table with winning whole of the pot.

Rules of Double Flop Holdem:

The game of double flop holdem is played just like the Texas holdem pokeri game, but the additional community cards are used in this game.

Flop here is not just the flop; it is also the river and the turn card. It is exact that double of the normal amount of community cards are required here for building a poker hand. There are 6 cards dealing as the flop i.e. 3 cards for the board on upper side and the other 3 for lower side. Subsequently, the turn cards will be dealt, 1 for the board on upper side and the other one for lower side. Similarly, the two river cards have to deal.

Similar to holdem games, one can make his/her best poker hand of 5 cards from the available 7 cards i.e. from the 2 pocket cards along with 5 cards of the upper or lower boards. Mostly, a single deck of 52 cards is used in the double flop games. So, one should attain the advantage of such games. To know what the other player does not have in his/her hand is beneficial for a player. The king high flush of a player looks fair enough when there is an ace on the other board by means of a bunch of suits of poker cards that do not match. Technically, there should be matching between one of the cards of the player and the suit of Ace.

One can use only a single row for making his/her hand. He/she should not declare the choice o his/her row whether it is an upper roe or a lower row. The rows could not be changed during the hand. For example, the player has A, K in his/her pocket. K, A, 3 is the upper flop and 10, 8, J is the lower flop. This will be regarded as two pair. 8 as upper card and Q as lower card will be dealt as the cards of the turn.

The player having the best hand for both the rows will be declared as the winner. One should have the best hand for both the rows and the pot should be scooped, but in the way that he/she will be sharing the pot with other players at the poker table.

Learn More about Double Flop:

• http://poker.about.com/od/pokervariations/qt/dbleflopholdem.htm

a golden ribbon, over your head,

tie it around your hair,

be gentle, but be firm,

tuck the seams behind your ears,

don't hide them, my dear,

tonight we'll walk through carparks.

...

your pink sweater, my dear,

put on your pink sweater, my sweet,

hide your skin in public,

silk on cotton fabric,

don't let rain fall on your skin;

look beyond the glass corridors,

tonight clouds hide the moonlight.

...

flip-flops for your feet,

you swapped shoes for flip-flops, i see,

we walk on coloured tiles,

on stairs and escalators,

on marbles, concrete,

beyond the glass doors

the carpark waits for you.

...

goodbye for now, my sweet,

the van have come to take you away, my dear,

no more golden ribbon,

flip-flops, pink sweater;

anyway, the plane will come tomorrow,

and i'll be leaving soon;

i'll catch some clouds for you.

...

Auto in garage Via l’auto,
sacrifici sul cibo e risparmi sui beni voluttuari come il biglietto per il
cinema o per la partita di calcio. Gli italiani tirano la cinghia e
riducono gli acquisti. Dall’inizio
dell’anno, così, la contrazione arriva all’1,9% rispetto al
gennaio-maggio del 2007.
Le tabelle registrano le difficoltà che tutte le famiglie conoscono
bene. Il settore più sacrificato è quello della mobilità: misura gli
acquisti di auto, moto, benzina e biglietti aerei e a maggio sprofonda
del 13,5% (-8,1% dall’inizio dell’anno). Gli italiani rinunciano
all’acquisto di auto (il calo è di oltre il 20%) di moto (-13%) ma
segnano un calo anche i carburanti (-1%). Come dire, l’auto rimane
in garage.

Fonte: http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=273745

Målmand: Antonis Nikopolidis, Grækenland (Et par drops og en international pension til Nikopolidis)
2. Målmand: Rüstü Recber, Tyrkiet (Ja, ja, han blev vel "helten" i kampen mod kroaterne, men droppet forinden og katastrofekampen mod tyskerne tæller en hel del ned)
3. Målmand: Ricardo, Portugal (Flyvsk og excentrisk)

Forsvar: David Rozehnal, Tjekkiet (Tung og sløv i optrækket)
Forsvar: Eric Abidal, Frankrig (Droppet til anden kamp og rødt kort i tredje... Good Times..)
Forsvar: Willy Sagnol, Frankrig (Elendig back og elendig udtagelse af Domenech)
Reserve Forsvarer: Marco Materazzi, Italien (En katastrofal kamp mod Holland blev også hans sidste)
Reserve Forsvarer: Christian Chivu, Rumænien (Skulle være inspirator for resten af holdet, men var nærmest usynlig i store dele af slutrunden)

Midtbane: Torsten Frings, Tyskland (Kæmpe skuffelse på den tyske midtbane)
Midtbane: Jacek Krzynowek, Polen (En stor fejlaflevering)
Midtbane: Gennaro Gattuso, Italien (Et stort frispark)
Midtbane: Simone Perrotta, Italien (The Invisible Man)
Midtbane: Jeremy Toulalan, Frankrig (At Domenech holdte fast i stenstøtten Toulalan gennem hele turneringen, finder jeg meget mærkværdigt, men nu er Domenech heller ikke den mest hensigtsmæssige træner)
Reserve Midtbane: Florent Malouda, Frankrig (Droppet til sidste kamp mod Italien efter en mildt sagt skuffende slutrunde)
Reserve Midtbane: Franck Ribery, Frankrig (At han skulle blive skadet i 0-2 nederlaget mod Italien summer meget godt op, hvordan hans turnering har været)
Reserve Midtbane: Claude Makalele, Frankrig (Fik ikke stoppet forfærdentligt meget og når han gjorde, var der frispark)
Reserve Midtbane: Angelos Basinas, Grækenland (Midtbane med en daihatsu-motor)
Reserve Midtbane: Joao Moutinho, Portugal (Den lille tekniker fyldte ikke meget på den portugisiske midtbane)

Angriber: Mario Gomez, Tyskland (Ikke mindre end den ringeste spiller ved hele slutrunden.. At han gang på gang var i startopstillingen, begriber jeg virkelig ikke.. Buhet ud, da han blev udskiftet i sidste gruppekamp)
Angriber: Ebi Smolarek, Polen (Beenhakker vælger at placere deres mest kreative spiller oppe i front, hvor han overhovedet ikke kommer til fadet... Mere usynlig end Casper det Venlige Spøgelse)
Reserve Angriber: Mladen Petric, Kroatien (Man så ikke meget til den form, som han har vist i den tyske bundesliga)
Reserve Angriber: Thierry Henry, Frankrig (Et mål og en tynd kop te ligesom resten af franskmændene)
Reserve Angriber: Luca Toni, Italien (Spillede egentlig okay, men mage til uskarphed skal man sgu lede længe efter, og han er trods alt angriber)

Træner: Raymond Domenech, Frankrig (Kuk, Kuk)

Spillere som Lehmann, Kranjcar, Liberopoulos, Lewandowski, Engelaar, Ambrosini, Barzagli, de Rossi, Anelka, Karagounis, Nilsson, Thuram, Katsouranis, Svensson, Andersson, Galasek og Bystrov kandiderede også alle til en plads i truppen, men der er trods alt kun plads til 23 spillere i en EM-trup.

Slutrundens Mest Skuffende: Frankrig (Ude efter indledende gruppespil og et farvel til eksentriske Raymond Domenech)

Slutrundens Overachiever: Tyrkiet (Klasse af tyrkerne at komme så langt som de gjorde på trods af dumme karantæner og ærgelige skader)

Slutrundens Spillemæssige Skuffelse i Forhold Til Deltagelse: Tyskland (Ja, ja de kom til finalen, men det var sgu ikke på grundlag af sprudlende fodbold..! Typisk tysk kan man påstå!)

Slutrundens Liverpool: Italien (Snoooooork)

Slutrundens Dumbass: Volkan Demirel (Flot at få rødt kort i en ganske neutral spilsituation)

Slutrundens Dida: Antonio di Natale (Di Natale bliver skadet og triller uden for banen, men vælger så at rulle ind på grønsværen igen, hvorefter han fortsætter sit glimrende skuespil, så spillet stoppes... Usportsligt..? Ja!! En Oscar værdigt..? Nej, men måske kan han få en Golden Globe!!)

Slutrundens D'oh: Delt mellem Petr Cech (Skidt drop af klassekeeperen sendte Tjekkiet mod exit) og Rüstü Recber (Kæmpedrop i semifinalen mod tyskerne)

Slutrundens Comeback Kid: Denis Kolodin (Efter en katastrofekamp mod spanierne i indledende gruppespil, hvor han kostede mindst to mål, var han solid som en klippe i resten af turneringen, og russerne manglede ham helt sikkert i semifinalen, hvor han havde karantæne)

1. atitude, gesto, dito ou acto cujo objectivo é enganar ou dar a entender aquilo que não é; simulação

2. intrujice

(Do ing. bluff, «id.») [infopédia]

O alfabeto do Euro 2008

Guarda-redes: O campeonato teve nitidamente três guarda-redes em destaque (o espanhol Casillas, o holandês Van der Sar e o italiano Buffon). E teve uma série de falhanços para esquecer. Nomeadamente, os do checo Petr Cech e os do português Ricardo...

Olegário Benquerença: Foi o único representante da arbitragem portuguesa no Europeu.

Portugal: Os portugueses e a Europa esperavam muito mais do Euro 2008. A selecção portuguesa entrou bem na prova, mas apagou-se num ápice não deixando grandes marcas positivas nesta história.

Scolari: Ainda em Viseu, Luiz Felipe Scolari ficou muito zangado quando alguém o confrontou com uma frase de José Mourinho (“Se Portugal não passar a fase de grupos será ridículo”). Em dois jogos Portugal garantiu a qualificação, mas ficou-se por aí. Scolari vendeu-se ao Chelsea e a (ainda) sua equipa perdeu duas vezes seguidas. Ridículo?

La versione integrale in lingua la potete leggere QUI

Solo "chi doveva" non se ne è accorto.....   :-)

... Luca Toni.

[The Sun]

Das Ganze soll wohl als eine Art "Konzeptkunst" verstanden werden... es finden sich viele "Rätsel", wobei ich sowas generell nicht so arg mag. Naja, ich fand es um ehrlich zu sein einfach nur verworren und krank. Hat mich leider überhaupt nicht angesprochen, und ich versteh auch nicht ganz, warum es als "Thriller" beworben wird. Das Buch hat schon einen gewissen Sog, der mich jedoch sehr schnell wieder losgelassen hat, nachdem es so konfus wurde.
Das Buch soll verfilmt werden, hab ich gelesen, und den Film würde ich mir dennoch gerne ansehen. Einfach weil ich mir gut vorstellen kann, dass die geschichte in Bildern viel besser rüberkommt. Mir geht es beim Lesen oft so, dass ich viele kleine Hinweise einfach nicht bemerke (wobei das auch immer aufs Buch ankommt. American Psycho ist auch voll von Andeutungen, Hinweisen und versteckten Bildern, die mir beim Lesen nur so zugeflogen sind). Stellenweise habe ich das Buch als ein wenig an David Lynchs Stil erinnernd empfunden, aber das kommt als Buch einfach nicht so rüber.

Ich kann das Buch nicht so wirklich weiterempfehlen und denke auch nicht, dass ich es behalten werde (obwohl das Cover mal RICHTIG geil ist!)

Einer der wichtigsten Sicherheitstipps ist, dass Du vorsichtig sein musst, wenn Du eine solche Hand aus früher Position spielst. Ich glaube so fest daran, dass ich nicht einmal AQ offsuit Under the Gun an einem vollen Tisch spiele. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit damit in Probleme zu geraten und wertvolle Chips zu verlieren ist ganz einfach zu hoch.

Meiner Meinung nach sollte man mit Händen wie AK in früher Position sein Spiel variieren. Das ist das Schlauste, was man tun kann. Das bedeutet, Du raised manchmal mit diesen Händen und ein anderes Mal limpst Du nur. Dadurch machst Du Deinen Gegnern das Leben schwer, denn sie können nicht mehr so leicht Deine Hand einschätzen. Natürlich geht eine Regel damit einher: Wenn Du mit starken Händen limpst, musst Du das auch ab und zu mit Händen wie 76 suited machen.

Das bedeutet wiederum, dass Du auch mit schlechteren Händen raisen solltest und nicht nur mit AK oder besser. Kompletten Müll musst Du natürlich weiterhin folden, aber Du darfst auch mutig genug sein und mit weniger starken Händen den Pot angreifen. Vielleicht triffst Du ja im Flop zwei Paare. Reraist allerdings jemand vor dem Flop kannst Du Deine Hand folden und Chips sparen. Noch einmal: Es geht darum, Deine Gegner raten zu lassen, was Du auf der Hand hast und darum nicht zu durchsichtig zu spielen.

Manche Spieler behaupten, dass man mit starken Händen immer raisen muss. Ich aber denke, ein Limpen mit AK kann Dir potentiell mehr Chips bringen. Sagen wir, ich limpe Unter the Gun und drei andere Spieler limpen hinter mir. Der Button raised nun. Weil bereits viele Chips im Pot sind, kann der Button mit einer großen Anzahl an Händen raisen und muss nicht unbedingt etwas Starkes auf der Hand haben. Je nachdem, was ich für einen Read auf ihn habe, calle ich entweder nur sein Raise und versuche ihn nach dem Flop auszuspielen. Oder ich reraise selber und versuche den inzwischen großen Pot noch vor dem Flop zu gewinnen.

Hätte ich mit AK in dieser Situation gleich am Anfang geraist, hätte sich vielleicht keiner der Limper am Pot beteiligt und der Button callt unter Umständen nur mein Raise. Durch das Limpen gebe ich meinen Gegnern die Chance ihre Chips in den Pot zu werfen und ich habe sogar die Chance ein Reraise vor dem Flop anzubringen. Wenn der Button keine besondere Hand hat und nur versucht den Pot zu stehlen, überlässt er ihn mir mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit. Wenn er trotzdem callt, kann ich meine Hand vorsichtig spielen, wenn ich nichts treffe oder einen Monsterpot gewinnen, wenn der Flop zu meiner Hand passt.

Selbstverständlich gibt es keinen „richtigen“ Weg, um AK aus früher Position zu spielen. Wichtiger ist hier Deine Gegner einzuschätzen, die mit Dir am Tisch sitzen und zu überlegen, wie aggressiv Du gegen sie spielen willst. Wenn Du Dein Spiel variierst kannst Du mit Deinen starken Händen, wenn es drauf ankommt, auch viele Chips gewinnen.

Well what's wrong with Habeas Corpus, John McCain? If these guys are really so bad, it shouldn't be very hard to prove it. And if you have no evidence, why in the world are they being detained?!

But the story get's better. Apparently in 2005, John McCain said the following on Meet The Press:

Now, I know that some of these guys are terrible, terrible killers and the worst kind of scum of humanity. But, one, they deserve to have some adjudication of their cases. And there's a fear that if you release them that they'll go back and fight again against us. And that may have already happened. But balance that against what it's doing to our reputation throughout the world and whether it's enhancing recruiting for people to join al-Qaeda and other organizations and want to do bad things to the United States of America. I think, on balance, the argument has got to be--the weight of evidence has got to be that we've got to adjudicate these people's cases, and that means that if it means releasing some of them, you'll have to release them.

Look, even Adolf Eichmann got a trial. I mean, these--we are signatories to numerous agreements on human rights, against torture, universal declaration on human rights, etc. So that means we have to do something with these people. And I hope we can move that process forward very soon.

Is John McCain a scumbag or what?

Titre : The bionic test
Adresse : http://www.bat-test.com/
Annonceurs : NBC
Année de publication : 2007
Jeux concours : non
Collecte d’informations : oui

Pour les joueurs

Une cinématique de qualité, un accident de voiture , des explosions, voilà comment débute The bionic test. Après une cette impressionnante séquence cinématique hollywoodienne, on se réveil dans un hôpital. Le chirurgien nous apprend qu'il vient de nous replacer tous les membres du corps pour nous sauver la vie. Ça commence pas mal. Mais très vite on s'aperçoit que The bionic test n'est pas ce à quoi on s'attendait. C'est en réalité un simple test où il faudra faire un maximum de points en répondant aux questions. Les questions sont de 4 types : réflexes, coordination des mouvements (des doigts...), calcule et mémoire visuel.  On en espérait d'avantage d'autant plus que l'ambiance futuriste et les bruitages faisait plus penser à un Halo que à un Dr Kawashima de Nintendo DS.

Graphismes : 4/5
Jouabilité : 2/5
Durée de vie : 2/5
Fun : 1/5

Pour les marketeurs

Petite parenthèse : cet advergame est vieux et vous allez peut être vous demander pourquoi je publie un article comme celui-ci alors que le buzz est passé depuis longtemps. Advergame.fr ne fait pas que dans l'actualité. On cherche surtout à rendre compte le plus fidèlement possible de la qualité des campagnes de communication et de leurs outils vidéoludiques. Même après 6 mois, on cherche à donner notre avis de joueurs et de marketeurs pour d'une part, vous renseigner et d'autre part, compléter notre base de données pour qu'elle soit toujours complète.

The bionic test est un advergame annoncé par NBC (national broadcasting compagny) une agence de productions audiovisuels fondée autour de la chaine américaine du même nom. L'advergame a été fait en soutien de la campagne de communication de la série télévisé Bionic Woman. Mais cette campagne n'a pas du avoir beaucoup d'effet et l'advergame pas beaucoup de succès car le 28 novembre 2007 la série s'est brusquement arrêté, faute de public intéressé par l'événement. En effet moins de 6 millions de personnes ont vu le dernier épisode diffusé de la série.

Puissance : 2/5
Affinité : 3/5
Temps d’exposition : 2/5
Image de marque : 3/5
Note Globale Advergame :

A vous de jouer : Est-ce la campagne de communication ou la qualité de la série qui est à mettre en cause dans le flop de cette production ?

Somewhat, at any rate.

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. recently released a report that indicated Vista still isn't ringing many bells with major IT shops.

"A year of overwhelmingly bad publicity, coupled with opportunities for continued XP 'downgrades' or potentially skipping over Vista for Windows 7, look to have meaningfully eroded support for Vista and are likely to impair the product's overall adoption," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer quoted the report as stating.

RELATED ARTICLES
Chip Sales Continue to Grow, Albeit Slowly
IT Adoption of Vista to Begin in 2008
Will Vista SP1 Ship This Week?
It's Here: Vista Service Pack Debuts
   For more stories on this topic:
 
That was seconded last week when analysis firm Computer Economics weighed in with early results of its own recent poll.

"The preliminary results from our annual IT staffing, spending, and technology trends survey indicate that most organizations are still not including Vista in their plans for 2008. Many are not even planning, as yet, for an eventual migration," the firm said in a statement.

"Widespread adoption of Vista could still be a year or more away, which raises the possibility that Microsoft could begin to see its dominant share of the corporate desktop market erode with this desktop upgrade cycle," the report continued.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) does not break out sales of Vista from sales of its other "supported" operating system -- Windows XP.

LATEST NEWS

Is Vista Still a Flop With IT?
Judge Upholds Alcatel Award in Microsoft Case
Writing for the Web -- and Getting It Read
Decker: Yahoo Still Committed to Search Ads
Apple Ends Safari 'Carpet Bombing' Threat
However, tech analyst firms disagree on whether Vista is already past the prime it never had or is just beginning to take off.

In fact, sales of Vista to consumers are going swimmingly, according to Microsoft.

CEO Steve Ballmer said in late May that retail sales of Vista have now passed the 150 million unit mark. Additionally, by now, the vast majority of new PCs sold at retail come with a copy of Vista pre-installed.

In addition, despite all the talk in the media of the new fad of users buying a PC with Vista and then downgrading (even at additional cost) to XP, reports of that occurring have been hard to verify, say several analysts.

"I haven't seen any reliable numbers on the numbers of people who are buying Vista and downgrading to XP," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told InternetNews.com.

That doesn't mean that some large corporate customers aren't downgrading, of course. King said, however, that the slower adoption rate is as much the result of a poor economy as anything else.

"In the middle of a severe economic slow down, you have businesses tightening their belts," he said. That is causing companies to put off buying new PCs, which is still the primary avenue for Vista to enter the enterprise – a long-established pattern for new versions of Windows.

Gaining corporate acceptance

Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, has been hearing the same kinds of anecdotal evidence that Vista may not be having the sort of corporate impact that a new version of Windows would typically create by this stage in its lifecycle. However, he notes that at least one typical behavior has started to kick in.

"[Corporations] are now accepting Vista coming in on new machines, even if they're not replacing older machines as quickly," Bajarin said. Typical of most Windows roll outs, many corporate IT staffs will take the new system off of new PCs coming into their shops and replace them with the earlier operating system – until a point where the new system has achieved enough momentum that they finally start leaving it in place.

That appears likely to continue ramping up as Microsoft discontinues availability for Windows XP through most outlets as of this week.

In addition, Microsoft shipped Vista SP1 to volume licensees in late February. At least until recently, the conventional wisdom has been that conservative IT shops wait for the first service pack of a new Microsoft operating system to ship before they begin to deploy it.

Deciding what to do post flop is dangerous grounds for a bot, this is where most of the better players beat the worse. If you win the game after the flop only luck can save the worse player on turn and river. The thing with the bot is that we don’t build it to be a good player, we are building a surviving player and that is something totally different.

Once the flop is on the table the poker gets much harder. The pre-flop is pretty much kindergarten when it comes to programming compared to this. We decided we wanted to take some shortcuts though. As we didn't need the bot to play well, just to survive we thought we'd manage to cut some corners. These are the shortcuts.

If the bot is first to bet after the flop:

• There is a possible straight or flush on the table; bet half the pot 70% of the times, bet the pot 10%.
• Bot hit pair or better; bet the pot 70% of the times.

If the bot is not first:

• There is a possible straight or flush on the table; All in 50% of the times, double the original bet 20%
• Bot hit top pair, All in 100%
• Bot hit pair (not top) All in 50%, double original bet 20%

Can you see where this is leading? We repeat this on the turn and the river and what happens is that if the bot actually do play a hand there is a massive chance that it will sometime go all in. This moves the play to just luck. As long as you play with the bot the only thing that matters is luck, you can't outplay it because it doesn't try anything, it just goes all in (but only after a while, it forces you to bet a little first so you get committed).

With this for core this is by far the most stupid poker bot in the book but it works. This is not at all a bead strategy on short-handed Sit and Go's especially with a fast blind-structure. Give it a try yourself on a turbo SNG and you'll see that it's actually pretty smart. We decided we wanted the bot to play like this at least in the beginning, making it smarter could be left to step 2.

Read more in the next article: Cheating the poker room (Bot vs Party Poker)

As most poker rooms consider bots cheating, you need to outsmart them. Well, it's not really true, poker rooms don't care at all about bots but they know their players do. So the poker rooms try to show their players that they care about botting and consider it cheating. They search enough for bots so that their players will believe you can't bot. They don't find bots genereally because finding one will make it obvious to the players that you can bot. This works the same in all kinds of online games...

Continue Reading...

Bin heute zufällig auf ihren Blog gestoßen, und dachte bei diesem Chatlog eigentlich an ein lustiges Ereignis einer "Privatperson".

Nachdem ich einen Kommentar verfasst, hab ich mir die Seite doch genauer angesehn :)

Ein paar Auszüge was auch dort erwartet:

Die Top 3 der Flops

Ich denke, jede Senderin kann eine endlos lange Liste von Begrüßungsfloskeln ihrer Chatgäste aufzählen! Hier mal mein Wochenrückblick der Flops:

Platz 3: Zeigst du auch was oder willst du nur quatschen?

Platz 2: Mach’ die Beine breit!

Platz 1: Dreh’ dich um, damit ich deine hässliche Fresse nicht sehen muss!

Was frau sich da nicht alles anhören muss. Nach dem anfänglichen Schock kann ich sie aber nur noch belächeln! Arme Männer diese, versuchen nicht nur ihr sonst so tristes und verkorkstes Leben mit Frust und falscher Dominanz an fremde Menschen auszulasssen. Nein, sie müssen damit sie jemanden beleidigen können, dafür sogar noch Geld bezahlen.

Netiquette

Diese sollte man ja eigentlich immer einhalten, egal wo man sich befindet oder wer einem gegenüber steht! Aber es gibt einfach mal Gäste, die wahrscheinlich nicht nur zu mir so in den Erotikchat kommen, und einem ihre Forderungen “vor den Latz knallen”. Sicher, das Verlangen ist gerade in diesem Augenblick am stärksten und der Erleichterung soll schnell Abhilfe geschafft werden, nur sollte man(n) dann nicht auf ein reales Wesen im virtuellen Raum setzen. Jedenfalls nicht auf mich, ohne das man(n) mich vorher begrüßt hat:

Er: Hast du skype oder msn?

Ich: Erstmal Hallo! Sicher, habe ich

Er: Fügst du mich hinzu? Dann kannst du mich dort sehen

Ich: Warum sollte ich? Kann dich ja auch hier sehen!

Er: Ich zeige mich aber nur dort

Ich: Ja und ich koste dort nur 100 Euro die Stunde, bezahlen musst du im Voraus per Paypal

*klack*

Ich habe mal nach Netiquette gegoogelt und laut Wikipedia, hier nachzulesen, verhalte ich mich auf jeden Fall noch angemessen, halt frech aber nicht beleidigend!

Die Portale wird’s freuen, ähh ärgern! Visit-X schickt ja sogar Testchatter vorbei, Kundenfreundlichkeit wird eben groß geschrieben! Wobei mir bei Visit noch kein Gast unterkam, der mich nicht wenigstens begrüßt hat! Sollte das wohl ein Billig-Portal Phänomen sein?!

Sind die Kunden bei Karstadt und Rewe dem Personal gegenüber freundlicher als bei KIK, Aldi & Co. ??

Prachtstück

Meinen gestrigen Besucher im Erotikchat konnte ich einfach nicht ernst nehmen!

Er: Hast Du heute schon gevögelt?

Ich: Nach Deiner Frage zu urteilen, Du schon

Er: Ja, mit meiner Postbotin

Ich: Jaja, wenn der Postbote klingelt …

Er: Wir spielen immer ein Spiel

Ich: Und morgen die Handwerkerin?

Er: Sie kommt, bring die Post und wenn ich da bin, gehe ich raus und zeig’ ihr meinen Riesenprengel

Ich: Unglaublich

Er: Weil ich zufällig zum Postkasten will

Ich: Und was macht sie dann? Legt sie Hand an?

Er: Sie guckt erst mal und fasst ihn an

Ich: Was für ein Glück für Dich und das 6 Tage die Woche

Er: Und kommt, wenn sie Zeit hat mit rein

Ich: Na, das nenne ich ja mal eine persönliche Briefzustellung

Er: Sie mag lange Dödel

Keine Frage, dass manche Dienstleister mal ein Päuschen einlegen, aber hier ging es wohl viel mehr um sein riesen Prachtstück und dessen Würdigung. Er schickte mir auch noch ein Foto; riesig ja, aber die Größe ist nicht alles! Da ich vor lauter Begeisterung nicht gleich aufsprang und anbot zu ihm zu fahren, verließ er dann schreiblos meinen Chat.

Bist du spitz?

Bist du spitz, bist du geil oder bist du feucht? Ganz ehrlich, ich kann die Sätze nicht mehr hören. Was sind das für Männer, die außer das sie schon ihren steifen Schwanz in der Hand halten, wenn sie sich bei mir einloggen einen so begrüßen??
So auch dieser Kandidat:

Er: Hi Süße
Ich: Hallo
Ich muss dazuschreiben, dass dieser Gast mich noch begrüßte, ansonsten beginnt das Gespräch immer ab hier.
Er: bist du spitz?
Ich: Im Moment, nein, noch nicht
Er: zeigst du mir bitte deine Brüste
Ich: So läuft das bei mir nicht, tut mir leid.
Und schon loggte er sich aus.

Also, damit ich mich ausziehe und ganz nebenbei auch noch in sexuelle Stimmung kommen soll, muss mir mein Gegenüber irgendwie sympathisch sein. Das geht nur wenn man wenigstens ein bisschen Konversation betreibt oder vielleicht auch noch ein Gesicht dazu hat - übrigens tut es ein Oberkörper auch. Ich will weder die Lebensgeschichte wissen, noch müssen es persönliche Daten sein. Wenn man mit einem erotischen Smalltalk startet, kann das beide schnell in Fahrt bringen. Welcher etwas intelligente Gast wünscht sich denn nicht ein beiderseitiges erotisches Vergnügen?!
Und für die anderen: Ihr wollt schnell, kostengünstig und ohne viel Blabla zum Abspritzen kommen? Dann schaut euch Videos an oder geht zu YouPorn, PornFish, TimTube oder RedTube!

written by Camdy

Also ich finde die Art und Weise wie sie das anscheinend meistert sehr amüsant.

Toll werd ich mir bookmarken und weiterverfolgen. Als Tipp von hinten anfangen, weil es ein paarmal

passiert, das etwas sich auf einem vorherigen Post bezieht. Zwar nicht weltbewegend aber will es nur gesagt haben.

My overall experience given my expectations was pretty neutral. I cannot say i enjoyed the movie but at the same time I will not say I was blind to its merits. In fact, given this was meant to be a commercial movie, I thought kamal almost came out with a winner. Almost..

What prevented the movie from conquering the box office as thoroughly as the boss? The following reasons were what i could muster on a very cursory note:-

- The biggest demerit to the movie was I felt Asin. Malayali actresses should never be given the role of a traditional girl, and even if this mishap were to occur, at least for the sake of public well being, never the role of a traditional brahmin girl. Asin does a way better job in western clothes uttering a few insignificant manna-to-the-masses kind of dialog. Her role as Andal would have surely outdone Jyothika's much talked about performance in Kushi. Wo mee gads, the terrible cacophony that she created whenever she opened her mouth resulted in me having to close my ears out of sheer pain, much to the displeasure of the more tolerant fellow movie goers around me. And she was ably assisted in operation perforate-eardrum by the paati and khalifullah (kamal). When i left the movie hall, all I could think of was an irritating girl with a pretty face who is shouting random b.s. in a hyper-exaggerated tambram tongue. Seriously which normal man, let alone a hero, would want a partner like that??

- This leads us to the 2nd let-down of the movie. The really mediocre dialog. I'll admit it evoked a few laughs and made sense most of the time (I lost drift of the classical tamil bits thanks to my complete inability to understand any other variation of the beautiful language apart from the beautiful dialect spoken in namma madras. For this of course I do not blame kamal). For a script of which kamal (having written it himself) said great things were to be expected, it was a complete let-down. The sentimental rubbish and philosophical rambling was simply unbearable. Amean the Singh youth giving that supposedly inspiring dialog when confronted by the doctor with his life choices was so 80s that I could not believe Kamal had anything to do with it. Few jokes evoked mild laughter while many other jokes such as those involving George Bush were completely lost on the audience. What could possibly be more pathetic than jokes which do not evoke laughter?

- The third biggest let down was the mujik. It was quite simply an insult to the ears. There was absolutely nothing imaginative about it. It was just plain dumb synthesised music. I am sure people like Ilaiyaraja, Harris Jeyaraj or even Vidyasagar would have done an infinitely better job. The music served simply one purpose. I watched the movie in Singapore and i dunno about other places, but there was no interval here. The songs however saw to it that this was not a problem. So we used the mukundha song for going mootharam and o o sanam song for our bojanam. Imagine my horror when i discovered that the only acceptable tune from the movie, kallai mattum, was lifted from an old malayalam movie starring Vikram. (I know!! What are the odds!!) http://youtube.com/watch?v=Afmc6FeN-hM

- The hero Kamal. Kamal has got to come around to the fact that he cannot go around playing scientist-youth-falling-in-love roles any more simply because he is neither a youth nor the superstar. It would have been much better if kamal had let someone like Madhavan (I might have said Vijay but I am sure even Vijay will laugh at the thought of him as a scientist) be the hero and himself had played a more entertaining character such as the gult officer Balram Naidu. Balram's role as the RAW officer with a gultised tamil accent was by far the most entertaining high-point of the movie. He reminded me of that other enjoyable movie called Panchatantiram. It felt like the gult thatha himself had done the dubbing for kamal in this movie.

- Other things that sucked in the movie were mallika sherawat's tamil, the japanese girl's tamil (thank heavens i didn't have to hear too much of that. I would have passed away in my seat itself.) and the incredibly irritating political correctness of kamal's hero avatar which is a reflection of kamal's real ideologies, i imagine. For instance, when Asin asks him if he claims there is no God, Kamal suggests it would be nice if there was one. Kamal may have of course imagined that this non-confirmative answer sounded cool, but I (for some damn reason) find it pathetically irritating. In fact, for the entire dialog in that scene with Asin after the tsunami, I had to close my ears lest i hear some inane philosophical crap from Kamal. Actually, (this is an update), I have come to realize that the last dialog really irritated me because I felt I could read what had gone on in Kamal's mind. He must have faced all these questions from both himself and people around him regarding his atheist beliefs. And for every damn question, he probably tried to come up with the most smart-alec, non-confirmative answer he could muster, which instead of giving any real answers, simply leads to further questions. This entire role of (his-own-alter-ego)+(people-around-him) was voiced out in that scene by Asin and Kamal played the smart-alec answers giving youth. Bah...

The merits in the movie?? To be fair there are quite a few. For instance, the make-up and the graphics were, although not top of the line or entirely convincing, quite impressive for an indian movie. The ten roles were rather seamlessly blended together and for the most part, you forgot that it was Kamal essaying the ten characters. The last fight scene between the chappani youth and the vellaikara youth was quite stunning. I do not understand how it could have been done without using doubles for the majority of the scene. If it was indeed so, then it is quite mind-blowing.

All in all, the movie is a mishmash of 3 or 4 different movies squeezed into one with the resultant mixture being non-homogeneously sweet and sour at various times. However, I would definitely consider this a hallmark movie coming from India and would say that it is a must watch. Simply because this movie is, and is likely to remain, one of a kind. There is going to be no one else like Kamal Hasan in the near future and Kamal himself is not going to be stupid enough to attempt a magnum opus of this nature.

Update: My views on the plot

I find I did not mention what I thought about the plot of the movie and its basic premise. I did not think much about the plot and since it was a commercial movie, I thought my opinion on the plot would be irrelevant, but subsequently had to revise my opinion based on the comments from readers (ok, ok, I am just coming up with excuses for my own stupidity and negligence). For me the plot was FLAWED from its inception. It made very little sense to me. The chaos theory, which I first read about admittedly only after I saw The Butterfly Effect (lest you mistake me for some Peter-uttufying payal), I find has no relation at all with Dasavatharam's plot. The chaos theory is only applicable to events where even the slightest perturbation in the initial conditions has a exponential multiplier effect and affects the final result profoundly. Events that do not depend on the initial events significantly aren't really affected by this theory. In other words, the event under discussion must be deterministically random (eg. instantaneous noise parameters). The very idea of a bio-virus being released into the atmosphere and a tsunami striking at that precise instant to nullify it does not fall under the purview of chaos theory at all. So chaos theory as an explanation has absolutely no meaning at all. If Kamal is right, then we could well explain other things including Simbu's latest hairstyle, the birth of Sam Anderson (check him on youtube) etc.. to chaos theory. I personally will not stand for this kind of chaos theory abuse. So the best way to watch this movie would be to leave your brains back and also bring a high frequency filter for your ears (this is for drowning out Asin's voice). Happy watching, if you already haven't done it that is.

To elucidate further, I have added my response to the comment from vinoth:-

1. certain events like the WW-II, their outcome do not really depend on the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in india or something. they depend on lot more concrete factors such as the strength of each army, the mindset of people etc..
2. certain events however depend very significantly on the environmental variables. for example assume a ball is precariously balanced on a mound and even the slightest change in the environment can affect the outcome of the direction in which it rolls off, then that is kind of related to chaos theory. here, although physics can be used to explain the direction in which the ball rolls off, you cannot predict it because of the highly sensitive nature of the environmental variables. ie. deterministic chaos.
in effect, all events are correlated. but the degree to which they depend on each other may vary. If an event is (percentage-wise) highly dependent on even seemingly inconsequential events, then chaos theory can afford an explanation.
kamal’s plot falls in the first category and hence you cannot really write down the occurrence of the tsunami to chaos theory. kamal had this half-baked understanding of the theory and this made the plot quite poor.

You too can shill products for cash on the side if you win this show!

When last we left Aminal Food Lauren flipped off Fatima over coffee and Secret deodorant and Little Man disapproved of Kevin’s “romance” and we’re well on our way to finding the next Amy Finley.

(Updated with comments from the judges' blog.)

The first 10 minutes were recapped earlier last week. I read The Professional Bar & Beverage Manager’s Handbook instead. Any notes to add?
• People get hurt when Garza cries, sry2say.
• And there was no house-building on Design Star. :(

Sadly a new season of Poochie Visits Restaurants I Will Never Eat In will begin soon. Oh boy!

Bobby intros the second challenge with some spiel that I just can’t believe. Giada’s spice/olive oil/vinegar line for Crate & Barrel (that I still haven’t bought yet), Paula’s stuff for specialty food stores/QVC, Emeril’s everything that Martha has a stake in now (probably why she’s in this challenge)…this is a way for viewers to bring “a piece of [the FN stars] home?” Really? I thought it was to make money because FN shows don’t pay that much!

And now, the challenge: Make food samples for 50 food buyers and Martha in a jar. It’s served on food to test.

Nipa grabs too many spices, so much that Aaron is fucked when he wants to make his own packaged product.

Shane makes “Cherri-gac.” The hell?

When will Nipa stop using all these damn hot spices? All Indian food can’t be that damn spicy now.

30 minutes to prep for the purveors…but the labels suck. They cost, like, $10 to make at FedEx-Kinko’s. Or $2 at Pop Copy.

In summary, Nipa and Jeffrey make their spices too damn easy to make. T-Unit, on the other hand, made a Paloma pavlova and it went over well with the buyers. The buyers wanted their Steph a little bit saltier but the pavlova was the talk of Studio A.

Preparing the pavlova and the Steph

The finished product

Jordan is very, very pleased.

Then Martha arrives.

Martha bravely goes around and samples the packaged products.

Shane doesn’t salt his cherry-thing…

Nipa doesn’t have peanut in her spice (durr…). She also sounds delusional…

Jeffrey…meh…

Lisa worships God Martha? And flatters her? And visited farms…in Iowa?

PIGTAILS says some stuff and stuff with the stuff…

Aaron gets that Martha Stewart seal of approval…

Whitney is still annoying…and slips up…yay for culinary school!

Adam can’t sing and/or play harmonica but promotes his “Adam K G’s ‘Smoke It Please’ BBQ Spice Rub” well (that name just screams Rock Star Food Product, doesn’t it?)...

Martha prefers Lisa, Adam and Aaron and finds Whitney annoying as well (praise Dominique)…

Apparently Sunny Anderson, the woman who was once reduced to doing lame seasonal gift specials on FN, is becoming the new “it” girl with two shows. (I can't find a webpage for it on FN's site, however.)  The show, however, seems like a rehash of Follow that Food. Here’s hoping her new show isn’t going to be, like, $40 a Day, Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, Poochie’s other show…I’m missing a few shows here, I know it…

So it’s time for me to berate the judges. Let’s read on.

Little Man sees no “passion” in Shane. Shane does not give a fuck. Katarzyna and Mollie Sue rushed over by his side to console him as he was rewarded with the Charles Atlas Seal of Approval.

On PIGTAILS’ potato pizza-thing: I don’t think the judges understand that carbs get fatty when you put other stuff on top of it. A baked potato by itself is not fatty. A mashed potato with all the works is fatty because you put butter and cheese and sour cream and bacon and whatever on top of it.

Lisa gets verklempt over meeting God. This means our cry count is up to four. Maybe it’s five. I forget that Whitney exists some times. But I think it’s four.

The judges are like “WE DON’T KNOW YOU” to Aaron. Jodhi then said that there was no T-Unit, that there was only a J-Unit and it was her house and her show and everyone in the Carriage House was like “what?” And judging continued.

On Whitney’s gratin, yet again: It’s not that the gratin wasn’t cooked, it was too thick. I must be alone in this opinion.

Our winners are T-Unit and Adam (for the potato…meanwhile, foodies cried all across America) and Lisa (for the product) and Aaron (for the Martha Stewart seal of approval).

And our cry count is officially five with Whitney in this segment. And sadly she stays to annoy the shit out of me for another episode. The remaining cast is like “Whitney, you’re not annoying!” I think they meant to say that she was annoying, but whatever.

For reasons that I do not understand Jeffrey is cut. (Then again I never know why Susie Whatchamacallit and Little Man cut people, and I think they’re the worst at cutting people for a reality show. I think it’s that false air of superiority that they create around this show with the ‘selection committee’ and ‘culinary POV’ bullshit, but that’s just me.) I don’t even know why PIGTAILS was bottom two. And so this show is one step closer to finding an Amy Finley to yank off the air after six episodes.

Meanwhile on HGTV Kim Myles actually has a show worth watching and HGTV is pimping it out as much as they can. Le sigh.

Next: shucking oysters with Tyler Florence and LISA FALLS ON THE FUCKING BOAT AND IT WILL BE SO AWESOME. And personally I know that shucking oysters is a bitch but the judges will be like OMG YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DO THIS.

:P :P :P

Postscript: Little Man and Whatchamacalit speak. Not as epic as Father Sarducci speaking but whatever.

On Jeffrey Little Man says:

It’s sad to see contestants you like not being able to deliver. Jeffrey has seemed nervous, tense and flat. In person, he exudes elegance, warmth and a sophisticated humor. But he just couldn’t bring that to life in front of the camera. His potato presentation seems impersonal. His inability to open up, to connect his food with his life and personality, is leaving us with just a cooking instructor, not a star.

Little Man, I want a cooking instructor, not a Rachael Ray!

And, ladies, gentlemen, Two Faces of God, this is the kicker.

And for Martha he made (Ed. note: He actually went to the factory to make this?) salt. Salt. Hard to get excited about.

Saint Giada "made" salt.  Sure, it's sea salt.  But I've seen larger containers of sea salt direct from Italy for less than Giada's at Crate & Barrel.  That said I'd still consider buying it...but not before her olive oil or balsamic vinegar that I know I would be able to use now in my life.

Whatchamacallit on Whitney:

I'm getting a lot of grief for saying "annoying," that [Whitney] was annoying in the evaluation room (Ed. Note--read: set where judging takes place) and i just wanted to say that I am a huge fan of this young woman.  I...honestly believe that the world is a better place because of people like her.  I think she's exceptional and such a doll.

That's only because Whitney has fanbois/grrls that keep voting her for "fan favorite" on FN's website.  Which is why Lisa and I won't win anything on the finale.

One of the great disappointments in my movie-going life was watching the director’s cut of Donnie Darko. Now I have fond memories of watching DD on video (hee hee hee) on a cool, spring night as my muscles slowly tightened up following a long, Saturday evening run along the FDR. I’d read a little about the movie and had wanted to catch it when it was released theatrically. Unfortunately, its theatrical run was about a nanosecond long, so that didn’t happen. Watching it on video (hee hee hee), I was impressed with the performances of the brother-and-sister actors with the unpronounceable last name (and thought the sister was kinda cute and hoped she showed up in some stuff again). Mostly, though, I felt the movie heralded the beginning of what could be a major Hollywood creative talent. If Richard Kelly could put together a movie like that while in his 20s, I could only imagine what he’d be doing in five or ten years time.

Donnie Darko was a bit of a Rorschach blot of a movie. It trafficked in the same suburban surrealism of David Lynch, but unlike Lynch’s pretentious I’m-too-weird-for-story-coherence-and/or-character-development navel-gazing horseshit, Kelly anchored his low-simmering horror to well-drawn, well-acted three-dimensional characters. The prevailing sense of doom was given genuine resonance by the warmly-sketched suburban setting. Kelly even managed to evoke late-‘80s angst and anomie with a few light touches—Donnie’s sister threatens to vote for Dukakis, a montage is set to Thompson Twins’ Head Over Heels—without detouring into period satire.

What DD was actually about was, for all intents and purposes, left up to the viewer. I saw it as the struggle of a mentally-ill young man against the breakdown of his psyche and encroaching potential for violence. If the ending didn’t quite make sense, I gave Kelly credit for trying. It was, after all, his first movie.

Then I watched the director's cut and learned that DD actually followed a logic known only to Kelly and decipherable if—and only if—you read the fake time-travel book on the web site. The story had nothing to do with mental illness or our fragile grasp on reality, but instead with “Living Receivers,” “Manipulated Dead,” and, oh yeah, it takes place in a parallel universe. Replace the Darko house with the Starship Enterprise and you pretty much have any late-series Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.  So the movie I saw and admired was pretty much a mistake of filmmaking, existing only because the much stupider movie in Kelly’s head didn’t quite make it to the screen. How much stupider, you ask? Check out this Salon.com piece on it.

Five years later, Southland Tales, Kelly’s triumphant follow-up to DD premiered at the Cannes film festival. It promptly blew up like the Hindenburg, hopefully taking Kelly’s career with it. So why, you ask, am I bothering to visit it? Because in subsequent theatrical and DVD release, the corpse of ST (having shed almost an hour of run-time from its original version) is showing signs of life. Critics are now wondering if they weren’t perhaps too hard on the movie. Too taken with the Cannes blood-lust. Maybe, they think, we should give it a second chance. I’m here to shoot it in head so it can’t rise from the dead and menace us for a couple more scenes like the monster in any given slasher movie. Southland Tales is every bit as pompous, ludicrous, and self-absorbed as anything David Lynch has horked up in recent years. It’s just shinier and more pop-culture-obsessed (read: stupider).

The plot of Southland Tales is just as pointlessly convoluted as the (apparent) plot of DD only rather than having to divine it yourself, Kelly helpfully provides a voiceover courtesy of Justin Timberlake’s scarred veteran (who inexplicably mans a Barrett .50 caliber rifle turret on Venice Beach) who basically explains to you what's going on (since there's no real connective tissue between scenes). Seems in 2005 the US suffered a couple of thermonuclear terrorist attacks in Texas and promptly went to war with, well, damn near everybody. Three years later, America has morphed into a de-facto police state with a Big Brother-ish federal agency called US-IDent monitoring, well, damn near everybody. A plot is put in motion to topple the Republican stranglehold on government by a group of neo-Marxists (uh, isn’t Marxism pretty much deader than Hogan’s goat at this point?) by manipulating a right-wing action-movie actor named Boxer Santaros (a surprisingly good Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) who is suffering from a major case of amnesia. Santoros’s handler is a porn star/reality TV star/talk-show hostess/one-woman brand Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar, making me wonder if seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were a fluke or if I was just easier to impress in late ‘90s). Meanwhile, America’s oil supply is running out and sweeping in to the rescue is Baron von Westphalen (Wallace Shawn costumed like Yoda’s flamboyantly gay cousin) with a cure-all alternate fuel source called—I shit you not—“fluid karma.” Also factoring into this ungodly mess is a pair of twins Roland and Ronald Taverner. One of them is a racist cop, and the other is a veteran of a battle in Fallujah which scarred Timberlake’s character. And, hey, notice how they almost have the same name? Think that might be significant? And their hands glow.

Let’s see, what else is there? An arms dealer who sells out of an ice cream truck. A prophetic screenplay. A reality TV couple who are killed trying to stage their own death. A mysterious body found in the desert. Various blackmail tapes. A mega-zeppelin. Bai Ling being slinky. A lot of high-school level T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost references. And there’s even more than I’m probably forgetting. For the full story, just go here.

What this all adds up to is a simple end-of-the world story that Kelly has run through the sausage-grinder of his indignation over the Bush Administration’s policies, along with his tedious use of sci-fi tropes (time rifts, parallel universes) that were stale twenty years ago. Southland Tales might be a comedy. Or a satire. Or a tragedy. Or all of the above. Whatever the case, it manages to fail on pretty much every front. As satire it breaks no new ground. As a comedy, it isn’t really that funny (you laugh at it, not with it). As any kind of conventional narrative, it’s too pointlessly convoluted to follow. As an epic, it’s simply an excess of excess.

And while Kelly may indeed be filled with righteous fury over the Bush Administration’s transgressions, this movie really isn’t about the Bush Administration. It’s about Hollywood’s favorite topic: Hollywood. In Kelly’s mind, war, politics, culture, and the very apocalypse itself all converge in that glorious city. Jesus, didn’t 9/11 teach these idiots that they’re not the center of the world?

The plot may make even more sense if you read the comic book prequels to the movie (so not kidding), though I can’t imagine why anyone would want to. The characters are one-dimensional and exist solely to advance the plot, and who hell wants to catch up on the further adventures of a bunch of chess-pieces?

Pretty much everything that was good about Donnie Darko—the use of actors, setting, mood, story—isn’t simply mishandled here, it’s abandoned. Nowhere to be found in Southland Tales is anything like the exchange in DD when Donnie bitterly asks his mom what it’s like to have a mentally-ill son, and she replies tearfully “wonderful.” Watching Southland Tales, my jaw agape, I was struck by a sudden revelation. It’s actually quite simple. Kelly did indeed make a great film with Donnie Darko. Southland Tales just goes to show that he was too stupid to realize it.