Owner: Daily Lemon URL:http://www.dailylemon.com Join Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 05:22:40 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Commenting on world and domestic events. Site statistics:Click here
The French should be very much ashamed of themselves. 2007-03-13 19:38:31 The French
government recently passed a law, proposed by infamous French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy, that in effect harsh puts a gag on bloggers and citizen journalists The law is threatening any non-journalist who photographs or videotapes for instance French police brutality and riots and posts the pictures on the internet with a prison sentence. Furthermore, anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of EUR 75,000:- (approx. USD 98,537:-) possibly a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act in itself. The French authorities obviously wants to control the internet, and what people can see and read. Remember Rodney King? With the French legislation, George Holliday, who filmed the cops brutally beating Mr. King would have been put on trial instead of the police. And my guess is he would not have been found innocent like the police officers were. France has taken a huge step towards a vile dictatorship, severely limiting Read more:themselves
Parking ticket record - SEK 11 million! 2007-03-13 19:38:10 The municipality of Malmoe in the South of Sweden are frustrated over an enormous debt for unpaid parking fines. More than SEK 57,000,000:- (approx. USD 8,200,000:-) are owed by the good citizens of Malmoe. And if that was not bad enough, it turns out that four people alone have amassed a hefty SEK 11,000,000:- (approx. USD 1,500,000:-) in debt to the community. Since these four people do not have any assets (at least on paper) the municipality are virtually helpless and see little chance of collecting the much needed cash. One way of getting some money is impounding and selling the perp's vehicles. Some 50 cars have thus been processed during the past year, but it has done little to fill the tresury, since most offenders cars are worth very little.
The four offenders with the biggest debt to the community have been named by the local paper, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, perhaps in hope they'll be ashamed and finally pay up to get off the list. I don't really see how that is going to work, Read more:Parking
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Blogger gets four years in Egyptian prison. 2007-02-27 20:15:36 Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, Egyptian
blogger, was sentenced to three years in prison this week for "inciting hatred of Islam" and an additional year for "insulting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak" on his blog, where he wrote under the pseudonym of "Kareem Amer". Suleiman's blogs regularly criticised the government's religious and authoritarian excesses. He also criticised Egypt's highest religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law. His father has reportedly taken the step to disowning Abdel Kareem, stating that he would like to see Sharia Law applied to his son, in which he would have three days to repent at the end of which if he is not repentant, he would be killed. Dreadful things happen when medieval beliefs meet the modern world. Read more:Blogger
New product adds even more sugar to kid's diet. 2007-02-27 20:15:24 We got an e-mail to Smart Stuff the other day asking if we accepted products for possible review. We answered in a positive manner as we always do, but stating our submissions policy just to make things crystal clear. So, a couple of days later, the packages above arrives, along with a photo CD and a press release. The product is called Sipahh and consists of a plastic straw filled with flavored granules. The idea is you sip cold milk using the straw thus adding flavor to the milk. Sort of an instant milk drink if you like. Now do find the straw thing pretty clever, but that does not help. This thing adds 1.8 grams of sugar to every glass of milk your children drink through the flavored straw. Total carb content is 3.0 grams per straw (chocolate). More than 50% of the product is sugar, 85% is carbs (92% in the strawberry variant). Ten glasses of this Sipahh flavored milk adds 18 grams of sugar. Sugar our kids don't need. I know kids need milk, but do they really have to add sugar to m
Why the famous Audi commercial is a fake. 2007-02-22 16:40:32 It's been doing it's rounds on the 'net, and it looks truly amazing. Great commercial. A car that can climb a ski jump? WOW! What a great car. I'm gonna have to get me one of those Audi quattro's. But... have you watched the video really close? I mean REALLY close? That is REALLY, REALLY CLOSE? No? Watch it again, and then take a look at the screenshots I just made below.
Now answer this: What is that CABLE in front of the car doing? Is it PULLING the car up the ski jump? You be the judge. And if you don't believe me, run the video one more time. I think it's very suspicious looking...
Freedom of speech on trial in France. 2007-02-22 16:40:28 The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is in court defending itself against defamation charges over reprinting the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Two French Muslim organizations, the Great Mosque of Paris and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France
, led by Lhaj Thami Breze, are suing Charlie Hebdo for "public insults against a group of people because they belong to a religion".
The case concerns an edition of Charlie Hebdo from February last year, a special issue on the Danish cartoons, in which it reprinted the 12 drawings first published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. Charlie Hebdo also included its own cartoons lampooning other religious figures. The magazine and its publications director, Philippe Val, face the defamation charge, which carries a possible six-month prison sentence and a fine of up to EUR 22,000.
Philippe Val defended publication of the cartoons, saying they were aimed "at ideas, not men". "If we no longer have the right to laugh at terrorists, what arm Read more:Freedom
The worst movies of 2006. 2007-02-22 16:40:24 Some of you may find this post a bit unfair, especially if you were involved in the production of any of these screen disasters. But we reserve the right to differ. And to call a spade a spade. Some remarks, though; Basic Instinct 2 is a disaster, panties or no panties. The Wayans brothers should forever stay away from the movies
. Nicholas Cage and Danny DeVito should know better. Rob Schneider should have been stopped after " ...male gigolo". Tim Allen features in three (3) big bombs this year, does that tell you something? Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, the Duff sisters, Carmen Electra and Jenny McCarthy have pretty faces (sort of) but are sadly lacking in acting skills. Steve Martin should stop trying to be funny, and Poseidon was a sinker the first time around.
Would you pay $ 10 for a can of Coke? 2007-02-22 16:40:18 Thought not. But you have probably heard of people having been charged ridiculous prices for a simple hotel mini bar item like a Coke or a (very) small bag of potato chips? Perhaps you have been on the recieving end of a hotel mini bar rip-off yourself. I have, for sure, since I have a hard time resisting a cold beer in a hot tub after a hard day's work away from home. Well, here's some help in weeding out the worst scammers from the perhaps not-so-bad. (They're all ripping you off with the mini-bar and the telephone, don't you think otherwise.) The GridSkipper weblog has a piece on how you get ripped off every time you lift an item from the mini-fridge and on hotel mini-bar prices that mostly resembles extorsion. Read it, and be a victim no more. Via Bajo Coste (in Spanish).
Estonia - 852 souls are still waiting for the truth. 2007-02-22 16:40:14 The loss of the passenger ferry m/s Estonia
in hard weather in the Baltic Sea on September 28, 1994 cost 852 lives (only 95 bodies have been recovered). About half of them were Swedes, the rest mostly Finns and Estonians. This was the worst disaster at sea in the Baltic since the sinking by a Soviet submarine of the steamer Wilhelm Gustloff on 30 January 1945, where some 9,000 German civilians, most of them children, and wounded troops fleeing the advancing Red Army in Eastern Prussia is believed to have drowned.
Sweden is a small country, and almost everyone know or know of someone who perished in the icy 13°C (55°F) waters that night. Estonia, being an even even smaller country, felt the impact of the shipwreck as something close to a national trauma. The ship, and the connection to the west it provided, was a matter of national pride in the young democracy recently liberated by the fall of the Soviet Union.
From the moment the Estonia settled on the bottom, there has been wild spe
Liberal party officials spy on opponent's intranet. 2007-02-22 16:40:09 This is probably the Swedish political scandal of the century. Like a Swedish Watergate. Officials of Folkpartiet (the Swedish liberal party) are being investigated by police for spying on their political opponent Socialdemokraterna (the social democrat party) through logging in on Socialdemokraterna's internal computer network, where confidential reports and planning was stored. With the upcoming elections as close as September 17, this is of course pure political kryptonite with no end of the ripple effect in sight. The Social Democrats are indignant in the media, of course, but a guess is they are secretly rather pleased, since this may give them the extra push in the public opinion they need to win the election.
The spying was made possible when Liberal
party officials
got their hands on a Social Democrat party worker's login information. How this could happen is not clear at this point; the accused Liberal official, Per Jodenius, claims that the information was given to him by a
Löfgren finally confesses, too. 2007-02-22 16:40:04 Patrik Löfgren, the third of the three Swedish athletes caught by police in Gothenburg in mid August and charged with posession and use of cocaine, has finally decided to come clean and confess, both to the police and publicly via a staement to the press. Why Löfgren waited three weeks to face the music, when his partners in crime Patrik Sjöberg (left) and Sven Nylander (right) admitted to use almost immediately, was not explained. Possibly he thought he could get away with it, but finally realized the evidence was too strong. All three are now awaiting trial and sentencing. Previous posts on the subject, here and here. Read more:confesses
Designer of world's ugliest car gets fired. 2007-02-22 16:39:54 Subaru Tribeca is probably a reasonably good car. Other Subaru's are. But the new front is so utterly revolting, I'd probably turn them down if they wanted to give me one for free. I wouldn't want to be seen in it. Now, reports are saying that the chief designer behind the Edsel-esque look, Andreas Zapatinas, has been fired. And that major face-lifts are in the works for all Subaru models infected by his poisoned pen. Good thing. Zapatinas, who previously penned models for both Fiat and Alfa Romeo, clearly needs time to re-think his future career. Read more:Designer
Nylander confesses, gets so-o-o-o fired. 2007-02-22 16:39:50 Swedish Clean Sports (Ren idrott) organization spokesman and manager Sven Nylander last night went public confessing to using cocaine, thus joining former pole vault athlete Patrik Sjöberg. Nylander's organization wasted no time in severing every tie with him after the confession, applying damage control to save what can be saved of the organization's cred. Nylander further said that he'd used cocaine as a recreational drug "a handful of times", but never while his active career lasted. The third athlete involved in the drug bust, Patrik Lövgren, (middle above), still claims to be innocent, having no clue as to how traces of the illegal substance could enter his system. Personally I couldn't care less if Sjöberg and Löfgren want to wreck what's left of their lives doing cocaine. That's between them, their families, the police and, ultimately, a court of law. Nylander's case, however, is different. He's held a position of trust, traveling all over over the country making spe Read more:confesses
Update: Sven Nylander confesses. Took cokain that night. 2007-02-22 16:39:46 As of this evening (15 August 2006) Sven Nylander, too, has decided to come clean an confess publicly to using cocaine, joining Patrik Sjöberg, who earlier fessed up and admitted to using and posessing coke. Read more:confesses
, Update
Ugliest car of the week... if not month. 2007-02-22 16:39:35 There is ugly and there is really ugly. The Jeep Compass qualifies in both categories. And I'm heartbroken because of it. I mean, I love the CJ's and the Wrangler and the first few marks of the Cherokee. I hated the Grand Cherokee in all its incarnations and the Liberty with it. And I hate the Compass. It's out of proportion, it's bloated, it lacks harmony, it does not project any confidence, I would not trust it to take me to the grocery store and back on a rainy day. It is just plain ugly. This should not be allowed to happen to a brand and marque as distinguished as Jeep. Someone ought to be sentenced to spend a lifetime inside one of these monstrosities. Or just taken out on the range and shot. Gawd, it's ugly.
Are your fruit and veggies worth while eating? 2007-02-22 16:39:31 The distrubing story appeared in Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish only), my daily morning read. It was about the fruit and the vegetables we buy in the belief they are good for us, and about how these fruits and veggies, colorful as they may be, are so diluted and abused they are hardly worth the effort of chewing and eating
them anymore. Many are so low in nutrients and vitamins they would not pass international norms, like the FAO requirements. The paper used a refractometer (Wiki) to measure the sucrose level, Brix, (Wiki) in different fruits and vegetables. A high Brix level means, among other things, that the fruit or vegetables tastes sweeter, contain more vitamins and minerals, won't be as suceptible to spoiling, and will be hardier and thus require less pesticides. A low Brix level may be caused by harvesting the fruit or vegetables before they have ripened, that they have not had enough sunshine, been grown in bad soil, and been reared too quickly. Check the Brix standards and FAO
I'm back. And I'm not happy. 2007-02-22 16:39:26 I was planning to stay off the air until the end of the month, but a story in yesterday's paper (see next post) was so disturbing I had to write about it. I hate it when they f*ck me in the store; when I pay good money for what is supposed to be top produce, and it turns out they sell me sh*t instead. Read the next post and you'll see...
Gone to look for trouble... 2007-02-22 16:39:23 Just kidding. I'm off up country to get some serious chill time. But they have TV and radio and papers there, too, so there will be plenty to get upset about. I'll be back in the first of July with a new juicy lemon for your enjoyment... Love /Ed.
General Motors and its not so glorious past. 2007-02-22 16:39:18 During a stay in L.A. a couple of years back, friends in Manhattan Beach told us a story of the train that used to run along the beach. It seems that the walk- and bike path along the beach was built on top of the old train tracks that ran all the way to Long Beach. They also said that they were under the impression that apparently the American automotive industry had a hand in it's disappearance, allegedly buying train companies and shutting them down to boost their car and bus business; and at the same time laying the groundwork for L.A.s pollution problem. Today I happened upon the story below posted by Kate of Vancouver, BC, on Now Public:"Beginning in the 1920s, GeneralMotors
began investing in mass transit systems. According to historian Marty Jezer (and Congressional hearings held in 1974), between 1920 and 1955, General Motors
bought up more than 100 electric mass transit systems in 45 cities, allowed them to deteriorate, and then replaced them with rubber-tired, diesel-power
Stole sheep to amuse their pitbulls? 2007-02-22 16:39:12 Some things people do is beyond comprehension. What could have posessed the two men that were seen pitting their dogs on a lone sheep the other morning at Flatenbadet, a public beach south of Stockholm, Sweden. The poor shep had previosly been stolen from a kindergarten not far away, presumably by the same two men. A witness saw the two men pitting their dogs (possibly pitbulls, police say) against the defenceless sheep. When discovered, the men collected their dogs and drove off in a car. When police arrived, the sheep had died with injuries from bites on its nose, ears and throat. Via Svenska Dagbladet (paper edition only). Read more:Stole
We're sorry. 2007-02-22 16:39:07 The previous seems to have been a hoax, and we were fooled just like everybody else. This is of course a pretty lame excuse, but it's the only one we can offer up. We can only promise to be more careful in the future. Read more:sorry
Too fat for your head? 2007-02-22 16:38:59 America has an obesity problem of epidemic proportions, and there seems to be no solution in sight even though there has been reports recently that big soft drink companies would cease to sell sugared soft drinks in schools. That's always something, I suppose. However, the obesity epidemic is spreading like wildfire, and there are reports on people in the third world being both obese and undernurished at the same time. While not solving the problem, some adjustments are now being made to everyday products to make the obese feel less awkward. Like this oversized toilet seat. Called Big John (pun intrended, I'm sure), it's supposed to make your daily bowel movement more comfortable. Available in white or cream, it is promised to support 1,200 lbs.and comes with a life time guarantee not to break. If the Big John helps the obese spend more time on the throne, and less at the dinner table, I suppose something has been gained. And it's not weight.
Editorial: Swedish muslims demand shari'ah laws. 2007-02-22 16:38:55 Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the muslim organization Sveriges Muslimska Förbund (Swedish
Muslim League), the largest muslim association in Sweden with some 70,000 members (there's an estimated 500,000 muslims currently living in Sweden), has taken it upon himself to write a letter to the five largest political parties participating in the upcoming elections, demand
ing special legislation, and adaptation of national legislation to fit muslims. In what will, in effect, be at least partial shari'ah law, Mr. Aldebe demands that:
• Muslims should be granted time off work to attend Friday prayers.
• Muslim holidays such as Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha should entitle muslims to time off from work.
• Imams should be allowed to teach Islam and languages to muslim children in public schools.
• Boys and girls should be separated during the mandatory swimming classes.
• Interest free loans should be given to ensure that mosques could be built in every city and town.
• Counseling by i
Committing suicide with neither knife nor fork. 2007-02-22 16:36:07 There's a saying that roughly goes "Most suicides are committed with a knife - and a fork." This may well have to be changed, because now it seems we're softly killing ourselves without any cutlery at all. The Guardian has a bone chilling gut, wrenching special report on fast food and how the fast food business have succeeded to change our eating habits, generating huge profits for themselves and obesity and diabetes for the rest of us. One of the series of articles present an extract from Eric Schlosser's explosive new book; Chew on This, where he picks up where he left us after his first book, Fast Food Nation. In the new book, Schlosser again looks at the fast food industry - how it all began, its success, what fast food actually is, what goes on in the slaughterhouses, meatpacking factories and flavor labs, global advertising, merchandising in UK schools, mass production and the exploitation of young workers in the thousands of fast-food outlets throughout the world. Sounds like
5 things you shouldn't buy used. 2007-02-22 16:36:00 Netscape's Home & Real Estate has a story on used stuff you should stay away from. Most of it is pretty predictable; computers, digital cameras, plasma TV's and other appliances. We all know the tech race is on with these things
, and virtually all electronics you buy is pretty much obsolete the moment you leave the store. But still, they have a point. New computers are faster, megapixels are getting cheaper by the minute, plasmas too, and used appliances... well, I see the point. But none of this is really important compared to the one item on the list that surprised me. And that was – cribs. (And by that I mean baby beds by the way, not apartments.)
It seems that according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, buying used cribs can be a really dumb idea if you're not extremely careful. Each year 16 kids die because of cribs that break down, or simply have unsafe designs. Is the risk worth the few bucks you'd save? Same goes for other kid-related merchandise like strollers a
Online gambling – why you didn't win last night. 2007-02-22 16:35:55 Ever so often a story pops up on how robots are taking over online gambling, especially online poker and Black Jack sites. We have seen these stories, too, and we decided to try and find out what's behind them. Here's what we found, and we might as well tell you right now; we didn't like it much. Here are some excerpts from what we found:
In any reasonably friendly game of poker, you probably know the other players well enough to have some idea of their card-playing weaknesses and fortes. But when you log into one of the online card games there's really no telling who you're playing with. Or if they are even human. The word is out in the online gambling chat rooms, and the word is “'bots”. A 'bot (robot) is a piece of computer software written to analyze every situation in a nanosecond or less, having every possible combination hardwired into their memory, totally immune to intimidation and playing poker like you never could. These 'bots are, the word goes, being used to f
Why nuking Iran may be the mother of all mistakes. 2007-02-22 16:35:49 Yesterday I explored some events that could result from letting Iran go ahead and finish their nuclear weapons. The post was inspired by a story by Seymor Hersh in The New Yorker, where Mr. Hersh claims the Bush administration is planning an attack on Iran. The reason would be to deny Iran the chance to develop nuclear weapons. Apparently the White House are so worried by this, they are prepared to use the United States' own nuclear arsenal to this end.
Yesterday, I said that nuking Iran may not be such a bad idea, after all. This was after considering the possible results of nuclear weapons technology in Iranian hands. Today I'll explain why such an attack may very well be the mistake of a Millennium, and the end of the World as we know it.
A nuclear attack on Iran by the U.S. (with or without a coalition of other Western powers) would most likely be seen by the Iranians as humiliating to their national pride and quickly be exploited by political and religious extremists. A rich but Read more:mother
Why nuking Iran may not be a bad idea, after all. 2007-02-22 16:35:43 How distressing this thought may be, the alternative is far worse. The prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb married to long- or even medium range missiles is our worst nightmare, especially considering the attitude of the present Iranian leadership. Any Iranian research in this field must clearly be stopped in its tracks before a nuclear weapon can be developed. When such a weapon becomes operational it is too late to do anything about it, as was the case with Pakistan and India, two countries that really should not be allowed to own anything more dangerous than sticks and stones. It will most likely be too late for a couple of million Israeli's, too, since the first Iranian missiles most likely has Tel Aviv and Haifa written all over them.
Iranian nukes will also put shipping through the Strait of Hormuz at the mercy of the Iranians, which is bad news for everybody with oil imports from the Persian Gulf. A nuke detonated in this narrow strait would make it unnavigable for 50,000 years
Ugliest car of the month. 2007-02-22 16:35:35 I've previously presented some real automotive lemons on this site. At least lemons from a design point of view. See them here and here. This is a new contender from Subaru. The Tribeca was apparently introduced this January in Detroit, but I fortunately missed its monumental ugliness back then. Now its on the Stockholm Motor Show and still ugly as sin. Reminds me of the Ford Edsel of fifties in-fame with its toilet seat grille. Just pray the Tribeca (what kind of name is that for a SUV, by the way? Tribeca is a part of downtown Manhattan as far as I know) follows in the Edsel's footsteps.
96 airlines banned in the EU. 2007-02-22 16:35:31 There are some airlines who aren't welcome in European airspace anymore. Or at least not until they have come to grips with some safety or maintenance or other issues that bothers the EU civil aviation authorities. Until the issues are resolved, the EU has simply stripped a number of airlines of their traffic rights in Europe. Tough. The list contains both passenger and freight carriers. Here's the list that is supposed to be updated every three months. Most of the carriers on the list are West African, which already has caused some accusations of racism...
Aerolift (Sierra Leone)
Africa One (Democratic Republic of Congo)
African Company Airlines (Democratic Republic of Congo)
African International Airways (Swaziland)
Afrik Air Links (Sierra Leone)
Aigle Aviation (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Air Bangladesh (Bangladesh)
Air Boyoma (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Air Consul (Equatorial Guinea)
Air Kasai (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Air Koryo (PRC)
Air Leone (Sierra Leone)
Air Navet
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