TECHHYPE: Muckety Maps and Madoff

Ya gotta love the Internet, and all the bell-and-whistle technology that's built on top of it. You'll need a modern browser and a recent version of Flash to see this properly, but here's something that's a relatively recent invention: Muckety, "published by Muckety LLC, a company founded in 2006 by a team with years of experience in journalism, technology and online publishing."

The name Muckety derives, of course, from muckety mucks. Some follow the money. We follow the muckety, producing a daily news and information site based on online databases (which we enlarge daily), extensive research and old-fashioned journalism.

This crew, with whom we have no affiliation, seems to be legit. The insights into business, political, sports, celebrity, and other types of relationships in the news can be priceless. If your name is mentioned somewhere in a press release, news story, or the like, sooner or later you'll be in their database. And the world will know.

Remember Bernie Madoff, the guy who went to Club Fed after being convicted of perpetrating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest investment fraud in Wall Street history? Here's Bernie Madoff's Muckety Map:




Tips: Solid lines are current relations; dotted lines are former relations. You can double-click on any of the nodes with a '+' sign to expand that entity's relationship web. You can also right-click on a node to see additional options, and there's a menu on the left. Nodes are moveable.

Interesting, no? You should see some of the relationships in the financial and political worlds. For example, Robert Rubin (ZeroHedge Profile), the former Treasury Secretary. How about Sarah Palin, Facebook, the San Francisco 49ers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters - or even Harry Potter (Muckety Maps)? More interesting yet, is there really a connection between Barack Obama and Tupac?

Conveniently, they have categories of listings, movers & shakers, and a general news page that are all linked to relationship maps.

Conspiracy theorists, journalists, anyone performing due diligence, and political hacks, rejoice!

COMEDYHYPE: SF MUNI Catfights

This is the latest YouTube viral video sensation - fisticuffs on a San Francisco Municipal Railway (or Muni, as the locals call it) bus in Chinatown. Put "Muni Fight" into Google and you'll see what I'm talking about.



The first punch is thrown at about 1:15 in this clip. Hopefully this doesn't start a race war between the blacks and the chinese (although the comments on the YouTube page are pretty ugly). Be assured that this sort of confrontation is not unusual, though - there have been several of these recently. Maybe it's got something to do with the bad economy?

What you may find unusual is that not one of the men on this bus stepped in to break up the fight. I don't find this strange, however - most of the men in San Francisco are completely pussified, too afraid even to leave the seat up in a public unisex bathroom or otherwise be politically incorrect.

The transit agency is investigating this incident.

CONSPIRACYHYPE: To the moon, Alice!! To the moon!

"It is commonly believed that man will fly directly from the earth to the moon, but to do this, we would require a vehicle of such gigantic proportions that it would prove an economic impossibility. It would have to develop sufficient speed to penetrate the atmosphere and overcome the earth’s gravity and, having traveled all the way to the moon, it must still have enough fuel to land safely and make the return trip to earth. Furthermore, in order to give the expedition a margin of safety, we would not use one ship alone, but a minimum of three … each rocket ship would be taller than New York’s Empire State Building [almost ¼ mile high] and weigh about ten times the tonnage of the Queen Mary, or some 800,000 tons.”
Wernher von Braun, the father of the Apollo space program, writing in "Conquest of the Moon"

I know you hate you some CONSPIRACY THEORY -- cos that's what crazy UNIX sysadmin wacko nutjobs whose car be filled with McDonald's wrappers and low-end porn be believin', but YO, MORON -- Read, listen, analyze, understand... sheesh....

I've never heard it crystalised better than this, all the wacky little lies that add up to Adolf's Big Lie:

Wagging the Moondoggie, Part I

[ON EDIT -- Curiously, the site, since this piece was posted, is reporting:

davesweb.cnchost.com Temporarily Unavailable.

This account has surpassed its bandwidth allocation at the present time. You may reach the account administrator at www@davesweb.cnchost.com

Hmmm... Curious...]


"How many decades can pass, after all, without anyone coming even close to a reenactment before people start to catch on? Four obviously haven’t been enough, but how about five, or six, or seven? How about when we hit the 100-year anniversary?

If the first trans-Atlantic flight had not been followed up with another one for over forty years, would anyone have found that unusual? If during the early days of the automobile, when folks were happily cruising along in their Model T’s at a top speed of 40 MPH, someone had suddenly developed a car that could be driven safely at 500 MPH, and then after a few years that car disappeared and for many decades thereafter, despite tremendous advances in automotive technology, no one ever again came close to building a car that could perform like that, would that seem at all odd?

There are indications that this lie does indeed have a shelf life. According to a July 17, 2009 post on CNN.com, “It’s been 37 years since the last Apollo moon mission, and tens of millions of younger Americans have no memories of watching the moon landings live. A 2005-2006 poll by Mary Lynne Dittmar, a space consultant based in Houston, Texas, found that more than a quarter of Americans 18 to 25 expressed some doubt that humans set foot on the moon.”

The goal of any dissident writer is to crack open the doors of perception enough to let a little light in – so that hopefully the seeds of a political reawakening will be planted. There are many doors that can be pried open to achieve that goal, but this one seems particularly vulnerable. Join me then as we take a little trip to the Moon. Or at least pretend to."

ADVERTISINGHYPE: They Put Me In The Closet

Courtesy of CANAL+, which is basically the French equivalent of the American HBO, here's a great little video showcasing the talents of their screenwriters.

If you're banging someone's wife, and subsequently get caught in that man's bedroom closet, now you have the perfect excuse:



Priceless!

POLITICSHYPE: Indoctrinating the Children

There's been a bit of a tempest in a teacup lately about Barack Obama speaking to schoolchildren at the beginning of the school year. Let's not get into a debate on the merits of that event, but rather take a look back in time.

Less than a year ago, at the time of this writing, Dubya was still in the White House. Do you think any children were "indoctrinated" during his time in DC? Let's have a look:



Boy, people sure do have short memories these days! Good thing we have YouTube around to keep things real.

And doesn't this particular incident violate some basic religious tenet about false idolatry? Like, say, #4 of the Ten Commandments?

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." (Exodus 20:4, King James Version)

Gee, it sure seems like it did. What happens to those who violate that particular commandment?

"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." (Exodus 20:5, King James Version)

There's another commandment that deals with bearing false witness, but let's leave that one alone for a while. If the video above hasn't given you your daily dose of shudders or laughs, well, then please feel free to leave us a comment.

By the way, this is real. It's an excerpt from Jesus Camp, the 2006 documentary that was nominated for an Oscar (best documentary feature).

COMEDYHYPE: Protect Insurance Companies PSA

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

CARHYPE: VW and mileage for days!

Volkswagen's L1 Concept was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

"In many ways this 840lb, tandem-seat machine is the most important car at the show and just as much a supercar as the Lamborghini Reventón or Bugatti Sang Bleu.

It teaches people that 'super’ powers don’t have to equate with a gargantuan size, weight and fuel consumption. Super is as super does and the L1 has super in spades." (MORE)

If I could, I would buy a VW Polo Blue Motion:



"The most efficient model of all, the Polo BlueMotion, gets an all-new 1.2-litre, three-cylinder common rail diesel engine developing 74bhp, combining longer gearing through the five-speed gearbox, a stop-start system and regenerative braking.

The new Golf BlueMotion is powered by a 1.6-litre TDI common rail diesel engine producing 104bhp, and achieves a Combined fuel economy of 74.3mpg, while the Passat BlueMotion switches from a 2.0-litre TDI unit to the 1.6 TDI engine, allowing it to return 64.2mpg on the Combined cycle, up from the 57.6mpg achieved by the outgoing car. At the same time, emissions fall from 128g/km to 114g/km of CO2." (MORE)

YOUTUBEHYPE: Keep f*cking that chicken

I found this article on Huffington Post:

Ernie Anastos...did he really say that?

And I thought to myself...."that is such a classic line that there has to be a remix out there in You Tube land". So, as my darling daughter says, I "searched it up". Sure enough there were a few videos. I clicked through a couple of them and was not impressed. Then I found this one:

The Remix

This one is special...

YOUTUBEHYPE: "Slap Chop Rap"

Watching the Military Channel today and this came on. Simply priceless!

POLITICSHYPE: The Debtors' Revolt Begins

If you've been screwed by your bank and/or credit card companies lately (and who hasn't?) then you'll appreciate this:



There's not much to add, except "good luck".

UPDATE: Ann Minch, the woman who appeared in this video, was apparently successful with her own account. Bank of America called her and agreed to terms.