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directorcommentary | jasonbentley.org

Jason Bentley, Santa Clara, California: writing, photography, graphic design, music, audio, video, technology, life

Lookin' better



So Simba appears to be on the mend. :-) He's still taking things easy, but he's eating better and his face is beginning to look much improved. It looks like new fur is growing on his nose where the rash is/was.

If I don't hear back from the vet by Monday, I'll give her a call.


Bomb-diggety

CNN just reported that the US Army has announced that a 500-pound bomb dropped by an F-16 onto a residence in Mosul, Iraq...was an oopsie. Sorry, wrong target. The five innocent people killed? Casualties of freedom. The Department of Defense is promising a full investigation.

Let's see just how much we hear about this in the upcoming weeks.

Those wacky South Africans

Thanks to Brandon for bringing this to my immediate attention: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1644249,00.html

Masturbating boys cause a stir
07/01/2005 12:24 - (SA)

Riot Hlatshwayo and Glacier Nkhwashu

Tzaneen - Sexily-dressed women in a small Limpopo town have fallen prey to a group of teenage street kids that masturbate in public whenever they see them.

One woman, 24-year-old Gloria Shingange, had an embarrassing moment on Thursday when the boys drooled over her at the Tzaneen Mall because she was wearing a mini-skirt.

"They followed me around the mall with their hands inside their trousers. I walked out of the mall and when I stopped at the robot next to the Tzaneen police station they shouted saying I was attractive," Shingage said.

She said the boys took out their penises and started masturbating in full view of everyone while groaning in ecstasy.

Cops just laughed

"One of them said my legs were sexy. He then closed his eyes, grimaced and shouted at the top of his voice in apparent enjoyment of what he was doing," said Shingange.

"He held up his penis for everyone to see and started masturbating," she added.

"I was very embarrassed. They stopped traffic and all eyes were on me."

Shingange's embarrassment was however not going to end there.

The incident sent police officers at the Tzaneen station into stitches as she tried to open a case of public indecency.

The police allegedly refused to open a case, claiming that the street kids didn't commit any offence because they didn't touch her.

"They told me straight in the face that they were not taking my complaint because I wasn't raped," said Shingange.

Mopani police spokesperson Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe said he wasn't aware of the matter.

"This is an act of public indecency and cannot be tolerated," Ngoepe said.

"Anyone who tries to open a case of any kind at a police station and finds no help must not leave the station without speaking to the station commissioner," he added.

Some people however have a different view.

Vegetable vendor Mthavini Khoza said she condoned the boys' action.

"These boys are doing the right thing because their actions are likely to reduce the tendencies of wearing 3cm (sic) skirts in public and embarrass every woman," she said.

"I wish they rape them one day so they may start respecting their bodies," Khoza said.

One of the boys, a 14-year-old whose name cannot be revealed because of his age, had no qualms to speak about the incident.

"I feel very happy after masturbating next to a woman with beautiful legs and wearing see-through clothes," the boy said.

"There is no girl out there who wants a filthy glue-sniffing street kid so the only way to relieve our sexual appetite is to masturbate," he explained.

Okay, publicly masturbating teenagers is one thing, but "I wish they rape them one day so they may start respecting their bodies," Khoza said...

WTF?!

Missus Torrents

BitTorrent is a force for good. BitTorrent enabled the global transfer of disaster footage within minutes of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. BitTorrent is helping to simplify and secure the sharing of legal, high-quality, free music by far-sighted artists that embrace the promise of Creative Commons and the documentary/remix culture.

I came across www.legaltorrents.com yesterday and have heard some great music as a result. Somebody put together a torrent of albums from last November's National Solo Album Month (where the hell was I when they announced this, anyway?), and they're a lot of fun.

I'm particularly grooving on Walkathon's Misguided Missle, which has all the insulated, freewheeling fun of the bedroom PC-enabled solo album, with superfun melodies, crazy digressions, and some obvious influences - especially Jeff Lynne and the Stephin Merritt/Magnetic Fields oeuvre. I particularly like his party-chorus vocals, which is something I've played with before in my own stuff.

"Rockathon" would be at home on a Polyphonic Spree record, and it crashes into the bizarre drugged-out weekday afternoon "One Through Eight." "Impervious" sounds like the lost collaboration between Air and the Magnetic Fields. In fact, the backing tracks for both "Floor Beneath My Feet" and "Joe Mama Besser" sound so much like classic Merritt that I wanna start warbling lyrics about trains in my best basso magnetico. I like "Giant Shoes" a lot too. It reminds me of that sloppy, early 70's-era Brother Records era Beach Boys.

You can get the torrent file at http://www.legaltorrents.com/index.php?fuse=187