Play that funky turnip

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Via: Interesting Thing of the Day


The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra
And what do vegetables sound like? Like any orchestra, the instruments of the Vegetable Orchestra produce different categories of sound based on their shape and the method of playing them. There are percussion instruments: celeriac bongos, a clapper made from an eggplant, pumpkins to be pounded upon, and dry beans that are shaken to provide rhythmic effects. There are strings (a leek violin), woodwinds (a carrot recorder), and versions of brass instruments (a trumpet made from a red pepper). Of course, the orchestra is also continually coming up with new instrumental creations, determined by their need for a specific sound or a new discovery at the market.



Pipe down

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Suicide Reversal? Polling the Muslim world - Daniel Pipes
Muslims appear growingly (sic) aware that the terroristic ways of Osama bin Laden offer a less successful path to realizing the Islamist goals of imposing the Shari'a and creating a caliphate do (sic) than the political, lawful ways of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's newly-triumphantly reelected prime minister. Whereas terrorism stimulates its own antibodies and offers no plausible path to power, working through the system is proving successful in such diverse places as Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Iraq, and Bangladesh, as well as in the West. Therefore, this survey has more subtle and ambiguous implications than first appear.
At last, its clear that the 'war on terror' will continue even when the terror ceases because, of course, it's actually a war on Muslims as Daniel Sewerpipes so clearly explains in this piece.


Chill out, man

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Cannabis smokers need to be locked up
I have mentioned here before that the Chinese way, of taking out convicted drug dealers and shooting them, has something to commend it. Sadly, that won't happen: instead we shall have drugs gangs going around shooting each other, as happens now in our cities all the time.
This is the most ill-informed, badly argued and stupid article I have read for a long time. There was a time in China when people like Simon Heffer were taken out and shot. Sadly that won't happen.


T(u)sk, t(u)sk!

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Insurer Must Pay for a Surgeons Prank
When a dental  assistant needed a couple of dental implants, her boss, Dr. Woo, offered to do the work. While she was under anesthesia, though, he first temporarily installed a couple of fake boar tusks and took some snapshots of his handiwork, including a few with her eyes propped open. Then he swapped in the real implants and woke her up none the wiser. She only found out later, when a coworker gave her prints of the photos for her birthday.

Naturally she was mortified, and naturally she sued. The insurance company refused to defend him, so Dr. Woo settled out of court, paying $250,000, and then sued the company.  On what grounds? Well, the doctor reportedly argued, what he did with the tusks was an integral, if unorthodox, part of a legitimate dental procedure, and the jokiness was just part of his policy of maintaining a friendly work environment. He won. He got $1,000,000 (including the $250,000 he paid the assistant).


Morbidly useful

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YouDeparted.com - Welcome! Prepare for the unexpected
Welcome to YouDeparted.com * Secure electronic safe deposit box accessible anywhere 24/7 * Release instructions, estate info, and messages if something happens to you * Get organized and help your family avoid common problems and costs.

Military-grade encryption, backups, and monitoring.
Items in a desk drawer could be lost, destroyed, or stolen. Your computer can crash. We keep your info in one secure location so you can have peace of mind.You can access your account 24/7 anywhere in the world.


I'd need to be pretty certain this site wouldn't vanish without trace one day but, with that proviso, it looks like a pretty sound idea.

Via TechCrunch



So it's not all roses beyond the NHS?

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Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog: Patients as customers
The incursion of business practices into our profession has made uncomfortable bedfellows of those with an avocation and those without. The union leaves our professions, especially the nurses, in a fragile state right now. If you derail the dignity and mission of what we do, we'll simply stop and do something easier. Indeed, it's happening. Nearly 150,000 nursing jobs languish unfilled today in the U.S. (We've already lured over every nurse that Ireland and the Philippines had to offer, and now we're recruiting in sub-Saharan Africa.) And these are good-paying jobs. There's a doctor shortage too — and those jobs pay even more.

What's wrong? The answer is simple: we've lost sight of that boring and corny moral imperative to do what's right for those in need, to love your patient as yourself. That approach has always driven good medicine. Not customer satisfaction.



I Am the Way, the Truth, and the (Second) Life

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Jesuits say take word of God to Second Life
ROME - Catholic missionaries have always trekked to dangerous parts of the Earth to spread the word of God -- now they are being encouraged to go into the virtual realm of Second Life to save virtual souls.

In an article in Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, academic Antonio Spadaro urged fellow Catholics not to be scared of entering the virtual world which may be fertile ground for new converts wishing to better themselves. "It's not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it," Spadaro said. "Instead it needs to be understood ... the best way to understand it is to enter it."



Lordy, lordy!

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English like it should be spoken

'Carelessness about our beautiful language is sprouting everywhere' according to Graham Lord in The Spectator:
Nobody under the age of 40 ever uses the words ‘said’ or ‘says’ any more: it’s always ‘go’, ‘is’ or ‘went’: ‘So ’im and me goes dahn a boozer an’ ’e’s like, “Hey, man, check the babe in the corner!” an’ I go, “**** me! I’m in love,” an’ ’e went, “Hands off, man, I saw her first” so I’m like, “Too bad, man, she’s mine.”’

Yes, that's just how under 40's speak now.

What a fucking prat!

Hint: Try and get out a little more Mr Lord, preferably in the UK. (Oh, and do you still live in the south of France, by any chance?)




Free at last...erm

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‘New Labour flushed liberty down the toilet’ | spiked
Freedom has become a dirty word. So dirty, in fact, that there is now a brand of toilet paper called ‘Freedom’. Seriously. You can buy it at Tesco. It’s light blue, perfumed and it has the word ‘Freedom’ emblazoned across its packaging. What’s that all about? Freedom from skidmarks? ‘Man’s butt cheeks are born clean, but everywhere they are being stained!’ You can now literally wipe your arse with ‘Freedom’.