Eighty-three-year-old French writer Lucie Ceccaldi minces no words in her contempt for fellow countryman and scribe Michel Houellebecq:

So what is Ceccaldi's problem with Houellebecq? Well, for starters, she deems him an "evil, stupid little bastard," a "liar, an imposter, a parasite and above all—above all—a petit arriviste ready to do absolutely anything for money and fame." Of Elementary Particles [one of Houellebecq's best-known novels], Ceccaldi says: "That book is pure pornography, it's repugnant, it's crap. I don't understand its success at all, that just shows the decadance of France." And the rest of his ouevre: "What's this moronic literature?! Houellebecq is someone who's never done anything, who's never really desired anything, who never wanted to look at others. And that arrogance of taking yourself as superior ... Stupid little bastard. Yes, Houellebecq's a stupid little bastard..."

The punchline:

It should be noted, though, that Ceccaldi is currenly promoting her own memoir, titled L'Innocente, and is obviously trying to gin up interest in the book. And perhaps it should also be noted, in the spirit of full disclosure, that Mme. Ceccaldi is M. Houellebecq's mother.

I bet their family reunions are a hoot.

HT: reason's Hit & Run.

He's just preparing for the coming hyperinflation:

A man has been accused of attempting to pass a $360 billion check, which he claims was given to him by his girlfriend’s mother to start a record business, Fort Worth police said.

Charles Ray Fuller, 21, of Crowley, was arrested on April 22 on an accusation of forgery, police said.

Police responded to a report of a man attempting to pass the check about 4 p.m. that day at the Chase bank in the 8600 block of South Hulen Street, Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson said.

The personal check was not made out to Mr. Fuller and when the bank contacted the check owner, the woman said she did not write a check for $360 billion.

Mr. Fuller was also accused of unlawful carrying of a weapon and possession of marijuana, Lt. Henderson said. He may also face a theft charge in Crowley.

Lt. Henderson said he did not know if Mr. Fuller and his girlfriend were still together.

If I were the DA, I'd drop the charge.  Any guy this stupid isn't long for the world anyway.

Emerging market economy + totalitarian political regime = irony:

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

I think there's something in the water in the UK.  Besides sheep piss, I mean.  And it's driven the country's graphic designers absolutely nutters.

First it was the logo for London's 2012 Olympics, on which the organizing committee spent about $800,000, and to my eye, looks like a couple of punky chibi characters engaged in fellatio.

Then the UK's Office of Government Commerce unveiled (and then quickly re-veiled) a new logo which "was intended to signify a bold commitment to the body’s aim of 'improving value for money by driving up standards and capability in procurement'":



Uh-huh.  Now tilt your head 90 degrees to the left and see if you agree with an OGC spokesman that "the [logo's] effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters OGC - and it is not inappropriate to an organisation that’s looking to have a firm grip on Government spend."

If you're still puzzled, look below the cut and you'll see what he means by a "firm grip."

( Despite the innuendo, it's SFW )

Here's an earlier example of loony logos, taken from a Manchester transit poster.  I refuse to believe the irony here isn't deliberate.

You're doing it wrong!



Yes, this is an actual, CDOT-manufactured-and-installed highway sign.  Apparently, fuel taxes and road bonds don't cover the cost of keeping a dictionary in the sign shop!

The only proper use for the Windows Vista user's manual.  HT Watashi to Tokyo.

Looking to pimp your pussy?  Er, maybe that's just primp:

Kitty Wigs

Actually I saw this earlier on Graham Norton but didn't realize it was an actual Web site.

Get away from the Crazy Taxi machine, you bitch!

The Associated Press reports that a 9-year-old birthday boy's Chuck E. Cheese party went awry last Saturday night as his mother and that of another customer got into a fight. According to the wire service, police said the mother of the birthday boy was upset at another woman's son "hogging" an arcade game, which led the two moms to tussle in the Natick, Mass., gaming-themed pizza parlor.

Only in Florida:

Amber Tedrick said she didn't know she was headed for a terrifying beer run when she climbed into the back seat of an acquaintance's car Sunday with her 16-month-old daughter.

Tedrick, 20, said she thought they were going to a Winn-Dixie not far from a San Juline Circle mobile home to get food before a small Super Bowl gathering. She said she didn't have her daughter's car seat, but put the youngster in a seat belt.

Minutes later, Tina Darlene Williams, 46, was careening through St. Augustine traffic with a case of Busch beer strapped in beside her and twice missed colliding with other cars.

"I was nervous with the baby in the car," Tedrick said Tuesday. The car was running out of gas and stalling while Williams swerved down the road. . . .

Williams performed poorly on a field sobriety test and was arrested on charges of drunken driving, child abuse, possession of drug paraphernalia and no driver's license. She refused to submit to a breath test.

Sheriff's spokesman Chuck Mulligan said the car had an automatic seat belt but that the beer had been secured with the lap belt. He said the deputy had to physically go over and undo the lap belt to move the case of beer.

While that was nice and secure, the toddler was not.

It's all about priorities.

I know I'm getting happy with the content today, but I found this link to a public transit poster on The Agitator and I had to share (with modifications):

From Nick Gillespie on Hit & Run, in reference to Congressional proposals to regulate college textbooks:

We can stipulate that college textbooks cost too much, that publishers are sons of bitches who don't care a goddamn stitch about learnin', that colleges and universities are subsidy-sucking sinkholes that don't give a rat's ass about anything other than jacking tuition, that most college students are useless sacks of shit who should be remanded to coal mines where they might actually add something to society...and this is still a total waste of time for Congress.

On a lighter note, msginnyo pointed the way to the best new blog of the month: The FAIL Blog.

Maybe the best Flickr photostream EVAR.

Understanding art for geeks

Subject line is from #31.  Awesome.

Ganked from katuah.

Or so says the subject of an e-mail LeMont forwarded to me.  True or not, it is a damn funny joke.

( Click for teh lulz )

Via Tyler Cowen, here is a ranking of the world's flag designs.  The guy who wrote this, Josh Parsons, is like the Simon Cowell of vexillology:

"Best use of the star and crescent. Unfortunately, it depicts something astronomically impossible, namely the eclipse of the moon by a star. But perhaps it's not a star but a nuclear satellite-weapon aimed at India?" — critique of "A"-grade flag of Pakistan

"Impressively eyewatering, with only two colours." — Greece (B), and come to think of it, he's right

"Spain had a civil war over whether to keep this flag. The wrong side won." — Spain (B-)

"Good effort for a country whose name sounds like a 50s rock'n'roll group." — St. Vincent and the Grenadines (B-)

"Those stars aren't in a random arrangement at all... they're in the shape of the islands that make up the country. It's a map! On the other hand much of Tuvalu will soon be underwater owing [to] global warming, and they'll have to remove some of those stars." — Tuvalu (D+)

"Perhaps they have the excuse that their citizens can't remember the difference between Paraguay and Uruguay either." — Paraguay (D, major demerit for having name of country on flag)

And my favorite comment:

"Features a hawk sitting on a toilet." — Zimbabwe (D).  Probably designed by the same committee who came up with Mugabe's economic policies.

Simple designs and pleasing color combinations do best on Parsons' grading scale; anything with writing, more than two colors, "corporate logos", maps or weapons gets major demerits.  (Especially weapons; Mozambique, with its flag featuring an AK-47, ends up nearly dead last.)  He is especially unkind to the flags of the U. S. and its territories; Guam, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas rank last behind Brazil, which has the worst flag of any independent country.

Teh Holiez Bibul, std lolcat verzhun.  Srsly.

Bill Gates delivers his last keynote speech at CES as the head of Microsoft, and leaves with a hilarious and celebrity-packed video speculating on what his last day at the office might be like.  Apparently these films are a hallmark of his CES appearances, but not having attended one, I can tell you this is a side of Gates I haven't seen before.  (I have seen him speak in person, at an event at the Temple Buell Theater in Denver, and it wasn't nearly this amusing.)

See, when women stayed home and cooked the meals and raised the children, they were also available to fight the power:

"Why have you come to our little street?" asked the ladies.
"To install high tension electrical wires," the men replied.
"Down the middle of our street?"
"Down the middle of your street."
"Like hell you will!" was the ladies' retort. And when the workmen returned to sink their poles on Monday morning, they found an angry mob of females who congregated around the various spots where holes were to be sunk and planted their bodies in the way of any work. One octogenarian brought a chair out and sat atop the digging spot, while others stood their ground and glared. At lunch time, other women came out and changed places, so no child would go without its meal.

The men retreated, not willing to spill female blood or risk their own safety further. On further investigation, it was revealed the city has not obtained the proper county permit to plant any such power line down 71st Street, so any such erection would be delayed indefinitely. And the next day, a spokesman for the work crew said, "They not only won, they routed us altogether. There'll be six feet of ice at Sixth and Broadway before some of our men venture on Seventy-first street again. We ceased operations because we are not putting up any poles or lines on any street where the people object to them. Nothing will be done unless we can come to some agreement with the women."

This amusing bit of activism of yore courtesy of 1947project.