The photographer's rights grab is again in full swing (see the Oprah's debacle). Now photo contest run by boston.com, Fodor's, Nature Conservancy and Costco require that you perpetually and irrevocably transfer ALL rights to the submitted photos to those jackals!!! Think hard before entering any of those photo contests: they are merely a very inexpensive way for the sponsor to amass oodles of pictures for free...
More on the Photo Attorney blog.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Rental cars
2009 Nissan Altima, rented from Alamo.
I've driven it almost 1300 miles in 5 days in Florida in all kinds of weather from very hot and muggy to a torrential downpour (good windshield wipers!)
+) Big trunk, comfy interior, ample for 2+2 long(er) distance driving, good A/C, adequate center console storage and cup holders, starts with a button (keep the remote in your pocket...)
-) Not very economical, a bit noisy ride (tire/road noise), no satellite radio, no built-in entertainment for the back seat dwellers
Fun quotient) 7/10, a bit on the conformist, plain Jane side
Would rent again) Sure, why not!
I've driven it almost 1300 miles in 5 days in Florida in all kinds of weather from very hot and muggy to a torrential downpour (good windshield wipers!)
+) Big trunk, comfy interior, ample for 2+2 long(er) distance driving, good A/C, adequate center console storage and cup holders, starts with a button (keep the remote in your pocket...)
-) Not very economical, a bit noisy ride (tire/road noise), no satellite radio, no built-in entertainment for the back seat dwellers
Fun quotient) 7/10, a bit on the conformist, plain Jane side
Would rent again) Sure, why not!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
2009 Atlantic hurricane season
The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season (that puppy starts June 1) could have between 9 and 14 named storms of which four to seven will become hurricanes with three reaching Category 3 level or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. All that according to the meteorologists who are also known as "habitual liars", by the way...
So, here we go again.
So, here we go again.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Ryanair and common sense
A €7.98 round trip flight advertised by Ryanair from Shannon (Ireland, SNN) to Paris-Beauvais (France, BVA) will cost you a whopping €139.89 on that scumbag airline, not inculding transportation to/from the airports (quite considerable amount I must say, esp. from BVA to the City of Light.)
Well, fly Ryanair if you must, but better don't...
More on Flying With Fish.
Well, fly Ryanair if you must, but better don't...
More on Flying With Fish.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
WolframAlpha
If you prefer actual information, often with supporting data, rather than the all fluff all the time approach practiced by Google and other WEB search engines, try WolframAlpha Computational Knowledge Engine. You will spend some time learning its input syntax and semantics but the results are outstanding even though they just went live yesterday.
Bravo! Frankly, I didn't expect anything less from the brains behind Mathematica.
Bravo! Frankly, I didn't expect anything less from the brains behind Mathematica.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Photojournalist Hugh Van Es dies
Hugh Van Es, a Dutch photojournalist who shot one of the most iconic images of the Vietnam war, a group of people scaling a ladder to a CIA helicopter on a rooftop of the US embassy in Saigon in 1975 just before the city was captured by the North Vietnamese, died today in Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong. He was 67 years old. Hugh Van Es apparently suffered a brain hemorrhage last week and never regained consciousness.
Suncoast Energy and common sense
So, last week I rented a car in Orlando, FL and when I needed to top it off before returning it, I just stopped at a first big gas station, Suncoast Energy, on the way to the airport, on Butler National, and started pumping until I saw the price (no, these thieves don't have a sign with posted prices...) WTF? $3.99 for a gallon of regular in May of 2009..? That would be expensive even in the summer of 2008 when gas prices were at their peak! So, apparently these miserable bastards just squeeze you like a lemon because they feel like it...Because they believe that their proximity to the off-airport rental car return places justifies price gauging!
Stay away from these motherfuckers as far as possible when you need gas in the vicinity of the Orlando Airport: there are other gas stations, with way better prices, less than a mile away...
Stay away from these motherfuckers as far as possible when you need gas in the vicinity of the Orlando Airport: there are other gas stations, with way better prices, less than a mile away...
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Dom DeLuise
The voice of Pizza the Hutt in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs died today. He was 75.
TV personality (Dean Martin's show) and a great, funny, movie actor who apperead in Smokey and the Bandit II, The Cannonball Run, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in many Mel Brooks' movies (The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World: Part I, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) and in many, many others.
A very, very funny man!
TV personality (Dean Martin's show) and a great, funny, movie actor who apperead in Smokey and the Bandit II, The Cannonball Run, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in many Mel Brooks' movies (The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World: Part I, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) and in many, many others.
A very, very funny man!
Horsey set...
Mine That Bird, the 50-1 long shot winner of the 2009 135th running of the Kentucky Derby was purchased for $9500 US. Desert Party, owned by the ruler of Dubai Sheik Mohammed, cost $2,100,000 US and came in 14th...
Friday, May 1, 2009
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