Possible Causes Of The Global Financial Crisis # 1

To think that just a year ago, the financial world was powering along, feeling invincible. How things have changed!

Perhaps one of the reason for some of the disastrous financial mistakes made were that the traders were, well, just a little too young.

Possible Causes Of The Global Financial Crisis # 1:
The Traders Were Too Young

Andrew Goulding

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Be Scared, Be Very Scared!

I know it's coming into the Northern Summer and all those terrifying teen/slasher movies will soon be released but here is a short but genuinely terrifying video.

Be scared, be very scared!

Andrew Goulding

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Has Wimbledon Got It Right?

England's Daily Mail provided me with a giggle, when it highlighted how the good looking babes (seeded #28, #45 & #59) are getting centre court action and the less attractive top seeds such as Dinara Safina (#1) & Serena Williams (#2) are having to play on the outer courts.

Great pics, if you're interested in that sort of thing!

Andrew Goulding

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Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009

And so, the sad Michael Jackson met his end almost 48 hours ago. I wanted some time to collect my thoughts...

I saw Jackson on the Bad tour in the late 1980s - it was fantastic! He was superb! It wasn't the best rock concert I had been to but it was, by far, the best Entertainment show I had ever attended.

I wasn't moved in any way but I was certainly dazzled - many times in what was then a state-of-the-art show. However, the real star of the night was Michael's dancing, riveting, like an astonishing soloist that lifted his pleasant, sometimes dramatic, black/white funk music towards the Heavens.

And it was certainly Jackson's dancing, his particular take on black showmanship - honed in the 1960s on the pre-famous Jackson 5 tours and then developed by his study of old white boys, Fred Astaire & Gene Kelly - that made Jackson so special - from Billie Jean onwards.

However, it was his healthy, youthful, "up" funk music that first broke him as a solo star (I'm discounting 1972's Ben) with the hits Rock With You and Don't Stop Till You Get Enough, from the Off The Wall album.

They provided the finance for the next album's Billie Jean visual extravaganza (if you weren't there at the time, you can have little idea how revolutionary that music video seemed), a fine funk work-out which really showcased his acting/dancing.

Billie Jean, in turn, financed Beat It, which then eventually financed the astonishing Thriller video. The timing was right to surf the exponential growth of MTV - and as they say, the rest became History. Credit where it's due, Michael Jackson was phenomenal, not just lucky enough to be the right man at the right time and he is certainly a strong candidate for being called the greatest entertainer of the 20th Century!

As a songwriter, though, I consider him OK, creating good (sometimes very good) radio fodder but certainly not one of the black greats like Holland-Dozier-Holland, Stevie Wonder or even Ashford & Simpson. Mind you, The Way You Make Me Feel and Black & White remain pretty damn fine!

His songs were primarily vehicles for his charisma - they weren't great songs as such - and I know of no-one who has covered any of them successfully. However, that being said, he was certainly the King of Pop for 10 - 15 years - and deservedly so! Without the child molestation circus, he might still be the King.

I leave you on this sad weekend with a heavy heart - Michael's songs keep playing in my head, I see the videos like a cinema-loop in my mind - but the truth is that, like The Beatles, Michael Jackson was more than pop music, he became part of two (perhaps three) generation's lives.

For me, there is no greater send-off than to show how he brought so much joy to ordinary, everyday people - in this case, on the biggest day of their lives. Feel free to shed a tear or two, I have.

Wedding Thriller

"...My oh my...I am from Gary Indiana and grew up with the J5 and this is one of the best. Michael would be proud.

What an honor and a tribute.

Thanks..."

youtube member crumbusterat

"...his soul and music live on strongly in our minds. We will never forget you, MJ.

God bless..."

youtube member Moneyinmahpocket

Andrew Goulding

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Get Thee Behind Me Satan!

Get Thee Behind Me Satan!

No, actually stand where I can see you and I'll keep my back to the wall - and I'm not bending to pick up the soap in the showers.

Ahem. CNN reports today on the exorcism of gay spirits from the Manifested Glory Ministries Christian (Pentecostal-like) er...poofs.

"...You homosexual demon, get up on outta here!...You demon, loose yourself!...You sex demon ... you snake!"

Fox 61, News At 10 reports:

Get Thee Behind Me Satan!

I make only one comment:

WTF?

Sleepy Kangaroo: And Nothing Happened!

Here in Australia, we're embroiled in a political crisis which is so banal that it's hardly worth mentioning, except in international embarrassment.

Here's the cast:

Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd: a 40-lb. weakling / teachers pet / debating team star / former diplomat, fluent in Mandarin

Treasurer, Wayne Swan: a pleasant, slightly nerdy Aussie bloke

Opposition leader, Malcolm Trunbull: a plump, blustering oaf / multi-millionaire - who became famous for fronting Australia's push to become a Republic - which was rejected by the Australian public in a referendum in 1999. (Huh?)

Godwin Grech: an exotically-named super-nerd of a public servant, who's present job is to oversee an emergency interventionist fund set up to keep Australia's car dealers solvent during the economic downturn


Here's the story:

Godwin Grech claims to a Senate Enquiry that he may (or may not) have seen a brief (4 lines) email from the Treasure's office asking him to look into one particular car dealer's case (who had donated a 12-year old van to PM Kevin Rudd during the 2007 Federal election).

Malcolm Turnbull seizes upon this email (which may or may not have been ever seen) and claims that it shows that the PM and the treasurer are using the fund to repay favors!

Mr. Swan admits that he had a brief conversation with the car dealer but the record shows that nothing came of it.

Mr. Turnbull also demands the resignation of the PM and the Treasurer for lying to the parliament in saying that the email did not exist and thaving the audacity to say that Mr. Grech must be mistaken.

The Federal Police affirm that the email is false.

Mr. Rudd insists that opposition leader Mr. Turnbull resign because he has been such a silly goose.

Mr. Turnbull doesn't agree.

Godwin Grech is investigated for being a mole in the Treasury, leaking info to the opposition.

Whoopy-do! Australia - the place you want to be when nothing's happening.

Sleepy Kangaroo: And Nothing Happened!

Andrew Goulding

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Worst Taste Sales Decision Of The Year / Decade ?

English tabloid The Sun reported today on what may well be the worst sales decision of the year and perhaps the decade.

It seems that in one of their stores, English "high street giants" W H Smith put the book on Josef Fritzl - the Austrian cellar monster dad - "The Crimes of Josef Fritzl", as part of their "TOP 50 Books For Dad" Father's Day gift suggestions.

U-g-h!

Somebody's going to get their bottom spanked!

The World Beard & Moustache Championships

Being into fringe interests of many types, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I spied pictures of the contestants for the World Beard Championships, 2009 in Anchorage, Alaska, as reported by the UK Telegraph.

Categories include:

• The Natural Full Beard
  
• The Imperial Beard
• The Freestyle Beard
• The Freestyle Moustache
  
• The English Moustache
  
• The Fu Manchu Moustache
• Sideburns / Muttonchops &
• possibly un-named others
  

Having never got more than 5 days into a growth before having to shave, the 12 photographs are something of an eye opener of what could have been.

Don't look at the pictures too long, though, they kinda grow on you (ahem!).

Andrew Goulding

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Sustainable Google: Very Cool

Some folks might say that with Google making several billion dollars profit every year - and creating very little pollution in the process, that it has a pretty easy ride in going "Green".

Fair enough - but this video about the Google "campus" - is still an eye-opener, a glimpse of what the work environment will become for many of us in the future.

Sustainable Google: Very Cool

"...you guys set an awesome example for other companies!..." youtube member krishwithak


Google has also been investing in sustainable energy, including giving?/donating?:

• $15 million to Makani Power for high altitude wind power (see: CNN) &
• $ 10 million to Geothermal energy research

Now that's pretty cool!

Andrew Goulding

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Sick, Perverted And Against Nature!

I was going to post the print version of this news report the other day but forgot about it (doh!) but when I found ITN's video story, I couldn't resist it.

It seems that some gay penguins (6 of the 20) at Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany have taken in an orphan egg that had been rejected by it's straight parents - and that egg is now a chick (that's chick, not as in a hot babe but chick, as in a young bird - with wings!).

Sick, Perverted And Against Nature!

Yes, Cynthia, poofy penguin parents can be great!

Can we extrapolate that and comment upon human gay coupling?

No way, because everybody knows, God hates fags!

God Hates Fags!

Sexy Lap Dance

Oh Golly, I'm bored I've got nothing to complain about, so this sexy lap dance should put you off your cornflakes. Cop that, world.

Sexy Lap Dance

Meanie Me

I don't know whether you caught this sleazy article a while back but it's about a horny couple who pulled over to "do the deed" at the side of the road.

Unfortunately they were discovered by a policeman who was told by the female of the couple:

"We got horny and just wanted to f***!!"

Besides that, the cop noticed that two young children were in the back seat (aged 4 and almost 2) - the couple were drunk - and they also had "drug paraphenalia" with them.

However, the best part of the whole story is the picture of the two love-birds*. See it all in England's The Sun.

I know it's mean but seeing the picture, I can hardly imagine them in the throes of passion.

*Notice her admirable hickey!

Andrew Goulding

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Bud LITE & Porno: A Good Match?

Over at Time Magazine there was an earnest, hand-wringing article about whether a big brand like Budweiser should create an internet-only ad like this, which, well, gets into bed with porno but remains pretty passive.

Bud LITE & Porno: A Good Match?

Me?

Well for the targeted demographic, I think it's perfect.

Why the fuss?

There are ads for all sorts of sexual disfunction and adult "services" all over the media - I think it makes its point pretty well. Yes, Bud drinkers do buy porn. Yes, they are embarrassed by it.

It's a clever ad, I laughed - and that doesn't happen too often!

Andrew Goulding

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Three Cheers For The Blonds

The world seems to have it in for blonds, considering them dumb blonds, usually.

A Dumb Blond

However, three cheers for the Latvian blonds!

England's The Telegraph reports that several hundred blonds marched through the capital, Riga, to cheer up the nation, now reeling from the Global Financial Crisis.

Good for them!

Damn patriotic, if you ask me.

Michaelangelo's David 2009

And if Michaelangelo had been a modern artist, this is what he might have come up with:

Michaelangelo's David 2009

Andrew Goulding

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