love this quote

In an AP story on a proposed Civil Union bill in New Jersey:

But Republican Asseblyman Ronald S. Dancer said: "It's my personal belief, faith and religious practice that marriage has been defined in the Bible. And this is one time that I cannot compromise my personal beliefs and faiths."

(italics mine)

ID, please

I hadn't been carded in the 16 months I was away from the States. I'm well past the time when I expect to be carded, even here. But every time I've purchased alcohol since my return, I've been asked to produce my ID (I've always had one on me, although I've been lucky. I'm not back in the habit of always carrying my license).

Obviously, this points out the fact the USA has a older requirement for alcohol purchasing than most of the world. But it also is representative of something else I haven't missed about this country: being overly cautious about covering your ass.

flickr has done it again

I just discovered Flickr´s new Geotagging feature. It allows you to use the Yahoo maps interface (I assume it´s Yahoo maps, since that´s who owns the site. I haven´t used Yahoo maps with satellite images, but the interface is exactly like Google Maps.
The idea is simple - you can drag any photo you have on Flickr to the map, and the location data is included with the photo. You can also search anywhere in the world to see if anyone has tagged a photo with the location. My only problem so far is the lack of street map data for places such as New Zealand, which means I can´t place the photos exactly (and when even slightly zoomed out to get the satellite detail on Wellington, photos a few blocks apart get lumped together). But it´s still pretty cool. I´ve spent hours playing around on Google Earth and the satellite maps online. This adds an extra layer.

fun with translations

My Chinese cigarettes tell me they have "Scavenging Free Radical Tech." Yesterday on a German beer menu I was offered "Lager Hell."

The first one is just nonsense. The second is a word existing in two languages with two different meanings. Both make the product seem vaguely sinister to English speakers.

on the news...

Caught this Bush quote on the BBC the other day:

"North Korea has defied the will of the international community and the international community will respond."

It's been fun to watch how the administration has started to care about the will of the international community when it suits them.

mobile frustration

I bought an Orange cell phone in London so we'd have a phone as we traveled across Europe (our NZ phone won't work outside NZ). You'd think they`d want to make it easy for me to give them money. You would be wrong. I'm in help-line hell just trying to get them to let me use a credit card to add credit to my account, since there`s no other way to do it in Germany.

Overheard during a drinking session

"There, the outfit has tough street cred. Here, it just marks you as a bottom gay."