RyeBlog

Why is it that I always get tricked into watching the Opening Ceremonies? They are always very, very strange - and very long. They always start out with some weird, trippy thing - have an extremely long section with all the countries marching in - and end off with a long trippy section before they light the torch.

Torino was no exception. In an attempt to make it even more trippy, they took some pages out of Pink Floyd’s book and used large balloons and girls with gigantic hair. (Unfortunately, they didn’t use lasers or good music.)

Here are the highlights:

• Man beating a flaming anvil.
• Strange dancers.
• inline skaters with rocket packs.
• People dressed as cows.

I think the commentators make up half of what they say about the “symbolism” behind certain things - and the other half is made up by the people putting the show together.

What’s the symbolism of this guy? He looks like he should be the next Spiderman villain.

(more…)

I stumbled across this article the other day about a piracy raid in Europe somewhere. A guy was selling pirated games and videos out of an ice-cream truck. I guess that would make a crappy getaway car - what with the “Da de dump da de diddy diddy dum da diddy dump” playing at 120dB (re 20 mPa) everywhere you go.

The part I found fascinating was their description of his “lair.” It sounds like something that would make Batman jealous.

“Raids carried out by a team of ELSPA investigators with Dumfries and Galloway police and trading standards officers took place at a number of locations: a one-bedroom flat belonging to the man, a shop, an internet cafe, and two other houses…”

The search in the flat uncovered a hidden staircase that led to a secret second floor containing several rooms of state of the art copying equipment and counterfeit merchandise. A safe containing jewellery [sic] and over £2,000 cash was also found, as well as a stash of copied discs behind a fake partition.

So he has a one-bedroom flat, two houses, and an internet cafe - but he still drives an Ice Cream truck? Going back to the secret-staircase two-story one-bedroom apartment… How do you go about getting one of those? Do you just call a local realtor and let them know what you are looking for?

Hello? Century-21? I need a house with a hidden staircase that leads to a hidden room… I’ll also need a large covered-parking spot sufficient to fit an ice-cream truck in… Oh, and I’ll be paying cash.

Original article: Pro-G: Another successful piracy raid