The Cry Baby Blog: Mar 6, 2011

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Pirated copy of ‘The Hurt Locker’ airs on national TV

During the leadup to the Oscars, Belarus’ National State Television decided to show its views some previous Oscar winning films. One of them was The Hurt Locker, which won last years's best picture award. Problem is the version they showed had been downloaded from the BitTorrent site Interfilm.ru –– essentially a priated copy. Interfilm was raided by police in 2009 and it is now involved in a $1.25 billion copyright infringement claim.

The smoking gun is a female voice-over during the film that says, "“This release is created exclusively for interfilm.ru.” This was apparently commonly inserted into movies obtained by Interfilm.

A spokeswoman for Belarus’ National State television said that proper licenses for the film were acquired. The phrase mentioning Interfilm.ru could be a “technical error”, she noted. While you might expect this from college kids, it's pretty wild that a state TV station even in Belarus, would stoop to this ... or should I say have this type of "technical error". Read more on TorrentFreak.

Hurt Locker Clip with the voice-over

15 vintage products that are trying to kill you

Thank-you for this great list BuzzFeed. Here's product number 1:

To see the rest on BuzzFeed click here.

Video: Army exercise fails to deliver

I guess this is called a failure to deliver. Watch this quick video of an army exercise (don't ask me which army!) that goes off with a dud.

Plans for May 21? Forget it. This group of travelling "ambassadors" says the world will end on that day

What do you do when you are convinced that Jesus is coming on May 21, 2011 and the world will end on that day? Well, it seems you hit the road with your fellow wackos and spread the bad news. It's unclear (to me at least) why May 21 is the appropriate date for the world to end, but then again why not. These people left there families and jobs to spread the word, so why not give them the courtesy of listening – before we laugh.

From CNN: "They're wearing sweatshirts and other clothing announcing the "Awesome News," that Judgment Day is coming on May 21. On that day, people who will be saved will be raptured up to heaven. The rest will endure exactly 153 days of death and horror before the world ends on October 21. That message is splashed across their five sleek, vinyl-wrapped RVs, bearing this promise: "The Bible guarantees it!"

They're wearing sweatshirts and other clothing announcing the "Awesome News," that Judgment Day is coming on May 21. On that day, people who will be saved will be raptured up to heaven. The rest will endure exactly 153 days of death and horror before the world ends on October 21. That message is splashed across their five sleek, vinyl-wrapped RVs, bearing this promise: "The Bible guarantees it!""

The Disney movie you missed: "The Story Of Menstruation"

This 1946 Disney hit may have passed you buy, and that might just be a good thing. For reasons known only to old Walt, Disney produced this classic "The Story Of Menstruation". Then again, when your sponsor is Kotex ....

Study says its healthy for men to stare at women's breasts

I'm filing this in my every-growing "Useless Studies" folder. News flash: Staring at women's breast's is healthy for men.That is, until the slap comes. The study claims to have a control group of men who did not get to stare at women's breasts. They failed to mention that blind men were used for the control group. Watch this useless FOX NEWS report on the study, filled with ... lots of breasts!

News: It's Healthy To Stare At Women's Chests - Watch more Funny Videos

Perhaps the nerdiest thing for a high school student to do this summer

Image via Wikipedia

The Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing in Canada is offering and "exciting week-long program" in quantum cryptography for students in Grades 10-12 this summer. I know the kids taking this course will probably be my bosses in years to come, sneering at me from their $20-million-dollar mansions ... but it's hard for me not to remember those hot summer days or my youth, wasted doing absolutely nothing and enjoying every minute of it. Still, had courses like this been offered in my youth, and had I taken them ... In any event if you do want enroll here is the link: Enroll here!

Video: Banned University of Lincoln commercial

A student tried to show his university in a more modern light. He makes a video ....

89 million condoms to be given out at Brazil's carnival

Carnival, Marquês de Sapucaí, in Rio de Janeir...

Image via Wikipedia

I first thought the number was a typo, but calls to the CIA's condom intelligence division have confirmed. The Brazilian health ministry will be handing out 89 million condoms during the Rio Carnival, long noted as the party of parties. This is up significantly from the 26 million they handed out at last years' carnival. I have to think this makes Carnival the sexiest place/time in the world, short of Charlie Sheen's mansion.

There is a good reason for this. According to health officials in Brazil, 630,000 people in Brazil are infected with the AIDS virus. Fair enough. Party on!

Related articles

Economist compares Chinese provinces to countries

This is a fascinating look at the provinces of China, and how they rank when compared to various countries in the worldfrom the Economist. China as a whole, has the second largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. , but it's interesting to see just how strong some of the component economies are. From their report:

"Guangdong's GDP (at market exchange rates) is almost as big as Indonesia's; the output of both Jiangsu and Shandong exceeds Switzerland’s."

" Guangdong exports as much as South Korea, Jiangsu as much as Taiwan. Shanghai’s GDP per person is as high as Saudi Arabia’s"

Click on the graphic to go to the Economist's interactive graphic. It's worth looking at.

They have also compared stated in the U.S. to countries of the world. From the report:

"California on its own would rank as one of the biggest economies of the world. These days, it would rank eighth, falling between Italy and Brazil on a nominal exchange-rate basis."

"Who would have thought that, despite years of auto-industry hardship, the economy of Michigan is still the same size as Taiwan's?"

Click on the map to go to the Economist's interactive map.