Monthly Archives: July 2011

Russia Now Classifies Beer As Alcoholic

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a bill that officially classifies beer as alcoholic. Until now anything containing less than 10% alcohol in Russia has been considered a foodstuff. The move, signed into law on Wednesday, will allow ministers to control the sale of beer in the same way that spirits are controlled.

The article also says that Russian alcohol consumption is already twice the critical level set by the World Health Organization.

Russia classifies beer as alcoholic [BBC]

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I Am A Man

From Wikipedia:

The Memphis Sanitation Strike began on February 11, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Citing years of poor treatment, discrimination, dangerous working conditions, and the recent work-related deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, some 1300 black sanitation workers walked off the job in protest. They sought to join the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1733. Over the next 64 days, the strike grew into a major civil rights struggle, attracting the attention of the national news media.

Photo credit: N/A.

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The Connected States Of America

The Connected States of America illustrates the emerging communities based on the social interactions through the use of anonymously aggregated call and SMS mobile phone data.

Investigating the interaction network of people reveals interesting facets on how people utilize space. Cities attract their citizens from all walks of life, from nearby and from distant areas across the country. This constant flux of people commuting, migrating, and travelling across the country establishes connections which are dominated by large cities. The social connections woven across the United States can be used to define communities, where the glue that holds a community together is a stronger relationship with other members of the same community compared to members of other communities. Naturally, one can ask whether the communities defined purely by social interactions coincide with the administrative boundaries, for example state boundaries? Remarkably, this is not always the case!

[Via Laughing Squid]

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HardlyWork.in

Long hours at the new summer job? Feeling unprofessional when you check your Facebook profile at the office? Well there’s nothing more professional than a nice spreadsheet. Sign in with Facebook below, and see your news feed rendered into an innocuous corporate form.

Head over to http://www.hardlywork.in/.

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Quote: David Bowie

People are so fucking dumb. Nobody reads anymore, nobody goes out and looks and explores the society and culture that they were brought up in. People have attention spans of five seconds and as much depth as a glass of water.

—David Bowie. Right on.

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Two Employees Walk Side By Side…

Two employees walk side by side, one of them an apprentice, the other one a veteran with years of experience in the company. The apprentice carries a laptop, two cellphones, three USB sticks in his pocket, an iPad and a case full of CDs and DVDs. The senior employee, walking very relaxed, only carries a plastic bag with an apple and a cup of yogurt inside. The apprentice says, “sir, I assume that after all these years is everything in your head already, right?” The senior says, “no sir, I don’t give a fuck, I don’t give a fuck.”

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