Sdtrk: ‘What are you seeing?’ by The focus group

Found out about an interesting cultural phenomenon whilst trawling through the /k/ board of 4chan — funny how I come up with some of the strangest posts due to that site — cross Fight club with SoulCalibur, and you get the traditional Teutonic ‘sport’ known as mensur fencing.

Yes, he’s sporting an enormous open gash. Lookin’ slick, sir! Literally

You have two blokes, wearing chainmaille shirts and gauntlets, heavy padding over the right arm and throat, and heavy steel goggles that include a metal noseguard and mesh over the lenses. The fighters each wield a Schlager, a sword with a three-foot blade that’s been honed to incredible sharpness, and stand three feet away from each other. Now, the key word here is stand — you’re not supposed to move. You can deflect your opponent’s weapon with your own, but if you dodge or flinch at all, you’re disqualified. Bizarrely enough, the goal of mensur fencing is to stand your ground and take your inevitable licks. If you receive a nice facial scar, so much the better — you can show off your Renommierschmiß (bragging scar) as proof that you were in a match. The idea is that if you can face such intense, close-quartered armed combat with someone you may not even dislike, every other experience will pale in comparison. Or, as a famous extremist once said, ‘After fighting, everything else in your life gets the volume turned down.’

The centuries-old student organisations that participate in mensur fencing give off a bit of a ‘Freemasons with blades’ vibe, as many of the successful members go on to lucrative careers, such as the automotive industry, economics, or medicine, ironically enough. Initially, these fraternities sounded somewhat right-wing in nature to me, but they insist that they’re politically neutral. As it turns out, back in WWII, Hitler had told the organisations that they had to eject their Jewish members, and since being in such a fraternity is based upon brotherhood, they refused, and mensur fencing was banned until the end of the war. Even to this day, however, participants still keep their ties to the organisations secret, as most outsiders associate them with the right-wing mentality. Although if you personally ever run across any older Germans or Austrians with prominent scars on the left side of their faces, signal flags might start going up in your mind now…

More about mensur fencing here, and here. Fascinating stuff! Part of me wishes that this was the type of fencing that I’d taken back at Wayne state. Not a very large part of me, but still

Sdtrk: ‘L’éducation’ by Aline

Mice! They’re small, they tend to squeak whether or not you’re squeezing them, and they keep chewing on stuff. Sometimes they wear little rollneck jumpers, and star in films. Despite the fact that cats seem to enjoy them, a lot of people don’t really like ’em. But I’ll tell you this: don’t fuck with them, or they’ll set your whole goddamn house on fire.

Blazing mouse sets fire to house

A US man who threw a mouse onto a pile of burning leaves could only watch in horror as it ran into his house and set the building ablaze.

Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, found the mouse in his home and wanted to get rid of it.

“I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house,” he was quoted as saying by AP.

Though no-one was injured, the house and everything in it was destroyed.

“I’ve seen numerous house fires, but nothing as unique as this one,” Fire Department Captain Jim Lyssy said.

New Mexico has seen several major blazes after unseasonably dry and windy conditions which have destroyed 10 homes and devastated more than 53,000 acres (21,200 hectares) of land.

In a way, he kinda deserves what he got for throwing a live mouse into open flames, but nevertheless..
First we had to watch out for squirrels, now the mice are after us. THESE ARE TRULY THE END TIMES

Sdtrk: ‘Et moi, et toi, et soie’ by Cléo

Heh. I’m thinking someone just managed to squeak by on their psychological tests.

Police: Officer Zaps Partner After Soda Dispute

POSTED: 7:19 am EST December 8, 2005

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Authorities said a police officer in Michigan used a Taser stun gun on his partner during an argument about stopping for a soft drink.

The suspect was fired after the Nov. 3 incident and is charged with assault.

Ronald Dupuis, 32, could get up to 93 days in jail if convicted.

Authorities said Dupuis asked partner Prema Graham to stop at a store for a soft drink, but she refused and instead kept driving back to headquarters.

Authorities said the partners struggled over the steering wheel, and Dupuis hit Graham’s leg with his department-issued Taser gun. She wasn’t seriously hurt.

Apart from the fact that she was tasered in the leg, of course.
At least his badge was revoked. And why only 93 days? Might as well round it off and make it a year, just to make sure. This is the sort of thing that further solidifies the idea that I’ve always held, that you really have to be a certain type of psychotic to become a police officer these days

Sdtrk: ‘Laid’ by James

Anyone that knows me at all knows that I love squirrels. They’re cute, and comical, and, err, cute. But after reading this.. now I’m not so sure.

Russian squirrel pack ‘kills dog’

Squirrels have bitten to death a stray dog which was barking at them in a Russian park, local media report.

Passers-by were too late to stop the attack by the black squirrels in a village in the far east, which reportedly lasted about a minute.

They are said to have scampered off at the sight of humans, some carrying pieces of flesh.

A pine cone shortage may have led the squirrels to seek other food sources, although scientists are sceptical.

The attack was reported in parkland in the centre of Lazo, a village in the Maritime Territory, and was witnessed by three local people.

A “big” stray dog was nosing about the trees and barking at squirrels hiding in branches overhead when a number of them suddenly descended and attacked, reports say.

“They literally gutted the dog,” local journalist Anastasia Trubitsina told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

“When they saw the men, they scattered in different directions, taking pieces of their kill away with them.”

Mikhail Tiyunov, a scientist in the region, said it was the first he had ever heard of such an attack.

While squirrels without sources of protein might attack birds’ nests, he said, the idea of them chewing a dog to death was “absurd”.

“If it really happened, things must be pretty bad in our forests,” he added.

Komosmolskaya Pravda notes that in a previous incident this autumn chipmunks terrorised cats in a part of the territory.

A Lazo man who called himself only Mikhalich said there had been “no pine cones at all” in the local forests this year.

“The little beasts are agitated because they have nothing to eat,” he added.

I am rendered speechless. If we cannot even trust our squirrels, what are we, as a nation, to do?
Well, so far it’s only Russia that has to worry about this. Nevertheless! Let us pray that these tree-dwelling ‘sharks of the woods’ don’t commandeer an ocean-going vessel, thereby bringing their ravenous hunger to our shores, or the shores of our neighbours. Cos once these squirrels have tasted blood, they’ll be like adorable little revenants, mark my words..

Squirrels! Who expects a pack of squirrels to eat a dog? Fuck it. The human race is doooooomed

Sdtrk: ‘Hawk’ by Broadcast

Everyone’s favourite glam-rocker-turned-paedophile might get killed by firing squad!

Glitter could face firing squad
John Aglionby, south-east Asia correspondent
Tuesday November 22, 2005

Gary Glitter could face the death penalty in Vietnam after it emerged yesterday that a 12-year-old local girl has claimed the disgraced rocker paid to have sex with her three times.

Police in the southern resort town of Vung Tau, where Glitter, 61, has been detained since Saturday amid allegations he had sex with at least one minor, said two girls aged 18 and 12 went to his rented house in the town and had sex with him.
the rest of the article is here

Everyone has a small place in their heart for ‘Rock ‘n’ roll Part 2′ — the version that the Human league did was the best, obviously — but apart from that, glam rock is singularly repellent. However, like many repellent things, such as Nazis and Mariah Carey, some fascinating aspect can be found if you look deep enough (snappy uniforms and boobs, respectively). Without glam, we wouldn’t have David Bowie, or Suede, for that matter.
But Gaz Glitter potentially facing a firing squad! You have to laugh! I mean, moreso than usual.

If they execute him, will he be allowed to wear his wig, makeup, stage outfit and platforms? It honestly won’t be a real execution otherwise

thanx to Zip Gun for the tipoff

Sdtrk: ‘Let the wind catch a rainbow on fire’ by Death in June

Found another article on das Infobahn about Japan implementing robots into everyday living. I mean, moreso than usual. However, it does make prominent mention of Kobalabs’ SAYA-chan, so there you go.

In the meantime, I’m fighting what may be a small-scale flu. I’m not as fatigued as I was yesterday, and food is tasting less like looseleaf paper, so I think I’m on the Road to Recovery. I still feel like a pig shat in my head* a wee bit, though. Damn this frail human body! *weakly shakes fist*
In any case, I’d better be well enough to see Broadcast, as they’re playing at the Magic Stick this Saturday. Perhaps I’ll go back to bed for the rest of the day

*fifteen Cool Points to anyone who can name the film that quote came from

Sdtrk: ‘Very friendly’ by Throbbing gristle

First otaku in space? Yes. But it’s okay, cos he’s cosplaying as someone cool.

Space geek to orbit in cartoon outfit

AFP, October 13, 2005

TOKYO: A Japanese Internet whiz is tipped to become the world’s fourth space tourist — and he wants to orbit the earth dressed as an ace pilot from a hit Japanese animation series.

The candidate for the $US20 million trip is Japanese investor Daisuke Enomoto, a 34-year-old former board director of the Livedoor Internet firm headed by flamboyant entrepreneur Takafumi Horie, local media said.

Enomoto has already passed medical checks and started flight training for a trip in late 2006, Jiji Press news agency reported.

Enomoto said in January that he was likely to be the first Japanese to make a paid space trip.

“I’m planning to do something amusing,” he wrote then on his website.

If he gets Russian approval, Enomoto said he wanted to dress up on the trip as “Char Aznable”, a character in the popular “Gundam” hero robot series of animation whose name is inspired by French singer Charles Aznavour.

Enomoto describes himself as a “Gundam otaku” (geek).

The third civilian to pay for a space flight, US millionaire businessman Greg Olsen, returned to Earth this week in a Soyuz capsule.

The 60-year-old American paid Space Adventures US$20 million for a seat aboard the capsule and eight days of gazing down at the Earth from the International Space Station, 370km up.

He was preceded into space by two other millionaire tourists, American Dennis Tito in 2001 and South African Mark Shuttleworth the following year.

DON’T LET HIM DO IT!! HE’LL HIJACK THE SHUTTLE AND DROP A COLONY ON AUSTRALIA!! Heh heh, little Gundam joke there.
Actually, Enomoto-san, during the inevitable filming of you tumbling round the shuttle in your Char outfit, I’ll give you $50 if at any point you shout ‘Sieg Zeon!’