Or perhaps power. We shall see. All you need to know for now is that my plan to back Tony Blair in the upcoming election won’t do Tim Yeo any harm at all. He fully expects his party to lose, and appears to be planning a leadership bid following this defeat.
OK, Mr Angry Pants is online….
I’ve been in touch with Roly Keating’s office. Sadly they do not have a record or recording of the exchange that led to the following ‘quote’ in the Dec 3 Mail article: At BBC2’s launch of its winter schedule, the station’s controller Roly Keating said the show would “push back the boundaries of taste and decency”.
They do, however, claim that these words were those of the reporter Tara Conlan, and used as part of a question put to Roly Keating on December the 2nd. They further claim that Mr Keating’s answer merely acknowledged that the strong language/content wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.
I suspect – repeat suspect – that Tara Conlan took this as such a strong confirmation of her point that she presented her words as his answer in her article.
I further suspect that the origin of the question (or the phrasing of the question) was John Beyer.
OK, it’s shocking, it’s alarming…. but it Does. Not. Surprise. Me. At. All.
Guardian – Bush’s choice for top law job faces grilling on torture: Alberto Gonzales, currently his chief legal adviser, told Mr Bush in early 2002 that the White House was not bound by the Geneva conventions in dealing with al-Qaida and the Taliban. In August that year he helped orchestrate and approve a justice department memorandum arguing that interrogators could use techniques which the Red Cross has since described as “tantamount to torture”. His role will come under close scrutiny, but he is expected to survive. Republicans consolidated their hold on the Senate in November and some Democrats are uneasy about blocking the country’s first Hispanic attorney general.
Just let the powerlessness/gutlessness of the Democrats sink in for a bit before continuing…
New York Times – Newly Released Reports Show Early Concern on Prison Abuse: When the Abu Ghraib scandal broke last spring, officials characterized the abuse as the aberrant acts of a small group of low-ranking reservists, limited to a few weeks in late 2003. But thousands of pages in military reports and documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to the American Civil Liberties Union in the past few months have demonstrated that the abuse involved multiple service branches in Afghanistan, Iraq and Cuba, beginning in 2002 and continuing after Congress and the military had begun investigating Abu Ghraib.
ACLU – New Documents Suggest Government Reluctance to Investigate Guantanamo Abuses: Documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union show that an FBI investigation into the use of “aggressive” interrogation techniques at Guantanamo was sharply scaled back, and that records related to the FBI’s investigation are still being withheld.
You can browse through and read those documents here:
Records Released in Response to Torture FOIA Request
DailyKos – What Bush Lackey Gonzales Wrought: Does it matter that Alberto Gonzales advised the President of the United States that he was not bound by the Geneva Conventions, any international treaties to which the U.S. was a signatory, or federal law when it came to “coercive interrogation” techniques? Of course it does. Here’s why…
Lots and lots of comments and extra info in that last link – do follow and dig. Oh and make time to share Something Funny Happened On The Way To Abu Ghraib.
Today, Page 3 girl Ruth (22, from Kent) ‘can’t believe’ the Beeb is showing Jerry Springer The Opera. She says: “I’m not surprised they’ve had complaints about the swearing. Why can’t they plug the Saturday night telly gap with good sitcoms or quiz shows instead?”
RWCs have known for a long time that the best defence it to be downright offensive, so it’s no surprise that The Scum are running with this following news that makes it absolutely clear why Murdoch has an interest in attacking the BBC. But this story didn’t originate at The Sun…
Seeking information about Crazy Frog? Harbouring a sneaking suspicion that you’ve seen/heard it before? This page is for you…
[Jamster affiliate link removed. Rupert Murdoch now owns Jamster and I’ll be damned if I’ll send money his way.]
You must have seen the Crazy Frog ad by now. Or heard the ringtone.
1. You may have a dim recollection of some viral game-type thing or another that featured this same sound. I am here to fill in the gaps.
2. Knowing how creative that originates on Teh Interwebs usually gets treated you may have suspected – like me and others – that the creator had been ever-so-casually ripped off. I am here to bring you some small amount of reassurance.
3. Each time you see or hear this ad/ringtone, you may contemplate the most drastic of actions. So much so that each time you are exposed to it your mind screams; Revenge! Death! Revenge! I am here to ask you nicely to put the blunt instrument on the floor.
We begin our short history lesson with the full ‘lyrics’ to the original sound file. I pray that someone, somewhere, will find them useful:
A ding ding ding ding dididing ding bing bing pscht,
Dorhrm bom bom bedom bem bom bedom bom bum ba ba bom bom,
Bouuuuum bom bom bedahm, Bom be barbedarm bedabedabedabeda
Bbrrrrrimm bbrrrrramm bbbrrrrrrrrraammmmm ddddddraammm,
Bah bah baah baah ba wheeeeeee-eeeee-eeeee!
Some web users will be familiar with the sound file in its Deng Deng form where it was presented under a static image of a Formula One racing car. The earliest reference I can find for it is from this post to Usenet in 2001, but I recall seeing it myself for the first time in June or July of the same year.
In late 2001, it morphed into The Insanity Test (not to be confused with The Sanity Test) which appears to have gone well and truly viral from December 2001 onwards (you can see some early Usenet references here).
(Admittedly, the Insanity Test wrapped around Deng Deng gave it some depth and perspective that worked wonders… but this later ‘enhancement’ with some basic animation is a complete waste of time.)
All went quiet until 2003, when a 3D animator by the name of Erik Wernquist came across the sound file and – untainted by Deng Deng and the Insanity Test – proceeded to create his own visual interpretation.
The earliest Usenet reference to the finished product is from January 2004, but the Web Archive clearly shows versions of this page dating back to November 2003. On the earliest version of this page scooped by the archive, you can clearly see the author responding to queries regarding the origin of the sound file as follows: I would like to thank everyone that has written me mails about the origin of the sound I am using. However, I now think I have gotten enough substantial “evidence” to state that it appears clear the creator is a swedish person with the nick-name “Britt-Erik” and that he is immitating the sound of an East-German car called Trabant; equipped with a two-stroke engine. This sound has apparently been used in websites and radio and TV-shows all around the world but I am almost certain that on all of those occations it is “Britt-Erik”‘s sound that has been played. Please do write me if you have some more information about “Britt-Erik”, but please don’t if you are sharing the same information as written above.
And, at the bottom of this page, Erik Wernquist tells the world that: A little more than a month after I had put the animation up I got a phone call from a somewhat confused person claiming he recognised the sound in my animation as his own creation. His name was Daniel Malmedahl and he said he had been contacted by a friend of his telling him to check out my website. I was a little uncertain at first but when he gave me the “proof” of performing the sound live on the phone there was no doubt he was the guy I was looking for. Apparently he was oblivious to the fact that his sound had spread around the internet, even before the Annoying Thing.
And yes, from December 2003, the page where Eric made his creation – The Annoying Thing – available for download has carried the following message: “To contact the voice of ‘The Thing’, send him a mail at daniel DOT malmedahl AT telia DOT com” (my spamblock).
So, to wrap things up…
Erik Wernquist (creator of the Crazy Frog character) and Daniel Malmedahl (endorsed by Erik as the originator of the sound file) appear to have agreed to the use of their intellectual property by the companies Jamba! and Zed, so we can assume that they have been compensated for any/all commercial use (but how fairly they have been compensated, I do not know).
And, because it’s the ringtone companies shoving Crazy Frog down your throat (and the demand from punters driving the ringtone companies) it must be stressed that Erik and Daniel are not to be blamed for your suffering.
Right… that’s that cleared up, and (I hope) that’s you calmed down.
We now return you to our usual programming….
UPDATE – B3ta.com is planning an interview with Daniel Malmedahl that will probably be published later this month. I’ll post a link here when it’s live.
UPDATE (27 Jan) – Oh dear. Now some bright spark at Jamster is trying to expand the ‘hilarious online viral’ product range… and this time perhaps they have been a little naughty… I Smell a Rat – An Uncaged and Curious Rodent-Based Doppelganger in AdLand
UPDATE (03 Feb) – Crazy Frog’s genitals cleared for British TV.
Guardian – US plans permanent Guantanamo jails: The United States is preparing to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial, replacing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp with permanent prisons in the Cuban enclave and elsewhere, it was reported yesterday.
Via deficient brain:
Mike Whitney – The Guantanamo Gulag: The prison facility at Guantanamo Bay is the brightest star in the Bush firmament. It towers over the political landscape like a monument to human cruelty. That’s why the administration chose to slap it up in full view of the world. It’s their way of announcing that the fundamental rules of the game have changed.
And this latest news is surely meant to assure us that The New Rules Are Here To Stay.
(Oh, and for all those who hold some dim hope that we can halt this slide before it goes too far… sorry, but that boat sailed months ago. May God bless President Bush and his mandate.)
UPDATE – More linky goodness to be had over at Chasing Daisy.
AP – Bush pushing for more faith-based funds: President Bush has succeeded in opening the checkbooks of five federal departments to religious organizations. Now he’s setting his sights on money doled out by the states. The goal is to persuade states to funnel more of the federal money for social service programs that they administer to “faith-based organizations.”
Drug Policy Alliance – Is Bush Expanding Faith-Based Drug Treatment?: Regardless of whether this represents a new program or a continuation or expansion of an existing program, critics have been quick to point out that faith-based drug treatment could be prone to offer an inferior quality of treatment counselor. Jim Towey, the president’s point man for faith-based initiatives, admits that faith-based counselors are not held to the same standards as typical drug treatment counselors, according to the AP. Other critics are wary of using federal money to fund avowedly religious organizations.
I can’t see the problem myself. The President himself is an excellent example of what happens when you overcome addiction through faith transformation.
Wow! This chap managed to find his own website!
—– Original Message —–
From: “e Moocher” [emoocher@gmail.com]
To: Bloggerheads
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 11:49 PM
Subject: Bloggerheads
> Check this out:
>
> eMoocher
> http://www.emoocher
> This guy wants to mooch some money off of people for no good reason.
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