We often view the use of new technology as a privilege. Hell, we still say having a driver’s license is a privilege in a country where functioning without a car is practically impossible outside of a city. However, one country is taking the first step in recognizing that we live in an age of dependence on technology, not simply a time of increased ease. Today, Finland makes broadband a legal right, and the approximate 20 resulting Tweets per minute suggest that it’s a damn good idea.
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Posts Tagged ‘International News’
Finland Delivers Broadband and Sunshine
10/14/09 - Posted by Abdullah Saeed under International Affairs“Survivor” Contestant Dies During Filming
6/01/09 - Posted by Evan Kessler under International AffairsWell, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Subjecting relatively normal human beings to extreme physical challenges in ridiculous, nutrition deprived conditions as they desperately make alliances can’t always end in champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Sure, it all sounds entertaining and harmless, but as the popular saying goes, “it’s all fun and games until someone has a heart attack and dies.”
That is exactly what happened on the set of a reality show that unfortunately wasn’t VH1’s “I Love Money”. Noncho Vodenicharov, a 53-year old former stuntman, singer, and Mayor had the utter misfortune to lose his life during the filming of Bulgaria’s version of the popular reality show Survivor.
“It’s all fun and games until someone has a heart attack and dies.”
While details are a bit fuzzy, odds are the victim had just finished swimming three miles after days of little nourishment and/or sleep in attempts to win immunity to save all of the members of his alliance from being voted off. With Noncho’s passing, no one is quite sure who will be booted at the next tribal council meeting, since Vodenicharov had totally promised everyone he had their backs. For more information on this story… watch this youtube clip and learn to speak Bulgarian.
On the Aversion of Sharks, Drowning & Other Unfortunate Deaths
1/21/09 - Posted by Evan Kessler under Because We Feel Like itWhile there will always be plenty of guppies in the sea, your chances of spotting two Myanmar fishermen adrift in a large icebox on an ocean seems like something you might encounter a little less frequently than say, Hailey’s Comet. Well get your telescopes ready, as several days ago an Australian Coastal Patrol craft happened upon two 20-something-year-old men afloat in an ice box amidst the man-eating waters of The Torres Strait, between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The pair of scrod scroungers had been sitting ducks for the ravenous shark population since December 23rd, when their Thai-based vessel capsized during a stormy session off of Australia’s North Coast. The miraculous duo, who made due on rainwater and frozen fish, are thought to be the only two survivors of the shipwreck, due to the fact that if the other seamen weren’t victimized by that whole drowning in the monsoon influenced-waters or being eaten thing, they were most certainly stung by any of Australia’s horribly venomous sea creatures. You know what they say; not everyone is lucky enough to get stuck in an icebox for twenty-five days.
Huge, Ugly Potato is Hugest, Ugliest of All Time
12/08/08 - Posted by Abdullah Saeed under Because We Feel Like itA Lebanese farmer reporting what he thought to be the ugliest potato in existence discovered that the specimen in question may also hold the record for size.
Khalil Semhat of Tyre, Lebanon presented eager members of the press with a 24.9 lb (11.3 kg) potato that looks like something between a lawn gnome and a severely deformed human heart. Semhat, who has been working his field about 50 miles from Beirut since childhood, claims that he has never seen a potato of this size and that he used no chemicals in cultivating his crop. He was weary of accusations regarding the use of TGH (Tuber Growth Hormone) which has been strictly prohibited by Lebanon’s Major League Farming.
When asked about submitting the spud to the Guinness Book, Semhat excitedly stated “!حسنا ، هذا شيء عظيم! الآن أن ابن العاهرة جارة من الألغام في النهاية اغلاق له الداعر “الف”*
He says that once he is acknowledged by the record book, he will ride a tidal wave of fame through the Lebanese state fair circuit to promote his potato and his personal memoir, a tale of farming on the edge, struggling against the weather, having your farm land bombed repeatedly by Israeli troops, struggling some more, and then growing a potato no one wants to eat.
Translation: “Wow! This is great. Now that neighbor of mine will finally shut his f@&k!g! mouth.”
Shoot ‘em Up: Two Men Charged with Injecting HIV
11/13/08 - Posted by Carmel Hagen under HealthTwo (horrible, appalling, extremely hell-bound) Dutch men have been charged with injecting 14 victims with HIV.
The actions of Peter M. and Hans J. (full names not released according to Dutch law) can not be interpreted as attempted murder due to the Dutch court’s ruling that HIV is only a chronic illness, not a decidedly fatal one (Ed note: OH: that’s crap). Because the men were willingly participating in unprotected orgies, the origins of the victims’ HIV can also not be proven. (Ed note: OH: Slightly more understandable crap, but still crap)
The men will serve 9 and 5 years, respectively. This hardly amounts for the amount of cumulative lifespan they’ve probably whacked off their sex party friends’ lives, but the nature of their crime probably guarantees an even rougher time in prison.
Buddy Up