Sometimes I get so frustrated I just have to rant. I'm sure that you feel the same and so here is a place you can. BUT.... and its a big but... this is not the place to get personal - no ranting about specific individuals (politicians and celebrities excepted), nor is the place to use obscene or offensive language. If you want to rant here then do so but do it humorously and eloquently please!

Now - welcome fellow ranters!

Rant-here.com is a website designed to let off some steam, have some fun, or offer my/your opinion on various subjects that - well - get people annoyed. Most of all - its simply about making observations that life's little difficulties have a funny side.

However, its not a site for obscene or derogatory comments, its not a site for racist, sexist language and opinions and, its not a site for making personal attacks against individuals. Nope... the idea is to be able to, in a somewhat humorous manner, discuss and comment on stupidities in everyday life. And there are plenty enough of them without having to resort to any of the above - right? Although some of the humor on the site might be a little off color.

So, do offer your opinion, tell us what really annoys you and why, and blow off some steam... but please do it nicely, funnily and keep it general.

Author Rant Man moderates this site.

Visit his other blogs at www.energyviewpoints.com, www.discoverczechrep.com and www.blogspayu.com.

PS Since I started the site I guess its nature has slowly changed into a place for a bit of a laugh as well as the odd rant. However, I still want to hear from you all so don't be afraid to comment or send in a rant.....

Thanks,

RANT MAN

I'm sitting in Europe these days watching the US election from afar (thank goodness!) but as a US citizen I certainly have a small role to play in determining the next president of the USA. I really cannot understand the popularity of Mrs. Clinton and God forbid if she is actually elected.

I mean are we trying to establish an absolute monarchy in the US these days then? Lets see, George Bush Sr. (4-years), Bill Clinton (8-years), George Bush Jr. (8-years) and now Mrs Clinton? Who is next - another Bush? Can US politics really be so boring?

GLOBAL warming is big worry for the UN. The UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will talk about it, and talk about it:

Tempo Interaktif reports that Angkasa Pura - the management of Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport are concerned that the large number of additional private charter flights expected in Bali during the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) December 3-15, 2007, will exceed the carrying capacity of apron areas. To meet the added demand for aircraft storage officials are allocating “parking space” at other airports in Indonesia.

No space at the airport because the Al Goreans are in town…

From Wikipedia....

A rant is a purely emotion driven speech or piece of writing that has been sparked by something so emotionally or intellectually jarring that one ignores any notion of making a well researched and calm argument. A rant directly attacks an idea, person or institution, often making few tangible claims and broad, possibly personal, attacks upon the target. While there may be some statistical or concrete information in a rant, the key ideas expressed are what the ‘ranter’ personally feels. A rant may be in defense of an individual, idea or organization but a rant of this manner predominately occurs after said subject has been attacked by another individual or group.

Has anyone noticed how certain people, obviously well-connected folk, show up time and time again as CEO of some firm or another? You know the type. They mumble on about EBITDA and profit an loss and all that bull crap but if you really drill into them they are an empty suite with a public school tie and lots of connections.

The problem is that they show up over and over again running businesses into the ground at the expense of the shareholders and workers. You see their results and think - thats the end of him - only to pick up a press announcement 3-months later to find they have landed another plumb job at $500k per year and a fistful of stock options. How the hell do they do it?

I mean, their resume must be a great read. Five times CEO and five bankrupt companies to show for all their golf outings.

From www.cnn.com...

Could not resist posting this.

Experts promote the global warming diet

WASHINGTON (AP) -- America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have much in common. But public health experts suggest people can attack them both by cutting calories and carbon dioxide at the same time.

How? Get out of your car and walk or bike half an hour a day instead of driving. And while you're at it, eat less red meat. That's how Americans can simultaneously save the planet and their health, say doctors and climate scientists.

The payoffs are huge, although unlikely to happen. One numbers-crunching scientist calculates that if all Americans between 10 and 74 walked just half an hour a day instead of driving, they would cut the annual U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, by 64 million tons.

London: 24-year-old Daniel French has been convicted and sentenced to time served after breaking into Leicester Square Gardens while drunk and making sexual advances to the fence in front of police.

"He said words to the effect of: 'I'm going to have sex with that fence'. The gardens were locked and police asked French to leave. He was drunk and there were some sexual motions - drunken silliness - to the railings," said the prosecutor.

French admits to being drunk and disorderly but denies that he propositioned the fence. "That's not right at all about the fence... The suggestion that I was trying to do something sexual to the railings is disgusting," he said.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

This last few weeks I feel as if time has become compressed. I am running around like crazy and very busy so time literally flies. Add to that the shortening daylight hours and it really does seem as if time is speeding up.

As we get older, time does appear to speed up. I recall being a boy and waiting for Christmas. Those December days used to take an eternity to drag by until it was finally Christmas. Now, it seems Christmas starts in September and ends just a few moments later on December 25th!

I'm fascinated by our perception of time and how it is relative to our level of activity, interest or boredom. I wonder, are there techniques to change our perception of time? A hedge fund friend of mine always says time is the most precious commodity and we ought to be able to buy time futures and options on some exchange. I wonder, can we? Is there already a way to do this simply by altering how we perceive time?

Any thoughts?

Interesting article from www.discoverczechrep.com

I bought a book on Brno for my father recently and it contained the strange tale of two churches and priests in the town who, well, didn't like one another. apparently, one of the priests was in the process of building a new church and had his architect erect a small angel showing off its bare bum in the direction of the other priest's church. Something of an interesting tale I thought and promptly set off looking at churches in Brno to try to find the mysterious and alluring bum.

For weeks I would peer at churches trying to find this bum but with no luck. As it happens, I eventually stumbled across it by accident waiting for a friend by a bar. As I waited I scoured the church next door for bottoms. And yes, there it was. Just above a window a very small angel exposing its rear to the wind and rain and pointing at the church down the road. So, it seems the story might have some accuracy!

Am I the only one who is heartily sick and tired of photographs of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton getting out cars to reveal a flash of their privates? I realize that these three women lead terribly busy and exciting lives and that forgetting to put on their knickers in a morning is an understandable oversight so I am prepared to forgive them once or twice for flashing their fannies but recently it seems every magazine I read has a flashing pic in it. You know the type - a fuzzy looking photo with a circle around the offending crotch and another circular blow up and more fuzzy image of yes - the unmentionables.

Never a hairy person I took delight in cultivating three long hairs that grew on the inside of my forearm - I even christened them Tom, Dick and Harry. It was rather strange that on my pretty hairless arm there where three quite long and thick strands growing where hair really shouldn't grow but I was proud of them. At school, I used to play with them by trying to run them between my fingernails so they would curl. Well, it was better than Mathematics! Over time, I grew quite attached to Tom, Dick and Harry. They were something permanent in my life and were always available when I was bored.

Yes - a popular topic on the internet these days..it won't be long before people who can't sleep will be watching advertorials about it on TV. I recently found an article by one blogger in which he publishes his P/L for the month and made a cool $20,000.

(http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/how-to-make-money-from-your-blo...)

Not bad. If you do a google search you'll find no end of tips on how to make money blogging and give up that boring day job.

So, I thought I'd post my version today. How I make money blogging.

Sheez, was it that long ago that bumper stickers asked this question in well-intentioned earnest: Have you hugged your kid today?

I suspect it was eons ago, or at least several mind-sets away, when hugs were an accepted expression of compassion and touching was encouraged as a laudable display of what makes us human and humane.

I hug, therefore I care.

Rest of the story to be found at http://www.miamiherald.com/tropical_life/story/309968.html

Not one to usually get enthusiastic about online games but I just signed up to play this online trading game and wow - is it fun and a very professional site. And its FREE!.

The site resembles an online trading portal and looking at some of the links and information feeds its obviously designed to take players from a game to the real thing with one of the advertisers. But, the advertising is subtle and well done.

You start with $100,000 and basically you trade just like in real life. It feels and looks like a real trading platform with all the feeds, data and real-time prices you could ask for.

All players are of course ranked on their ability to make money and after the end of the trading competition the best trader wins $25,000.

Great fun.

Traders Wanted - Play $25,000 Stock Trading Game

I called an airline last week to make a booking for a trip. I had little or no idea what was in store for me. It seems that they had installed the latest and greatest in technology - the voice activated telephone menu!

"Please state your name" it said. So in my best telephone voice possible I did so. It repeated it back to me.

This is pretty neat I thought.

Next it said "Are you calling to purchase a ticket?"
"Yes" said I.
Again it repeated back to me "You stated that you are intending to buy a ticket".
Then it said "And where will you be leaving from?"
"London" I said.

At this point, things began to go rapidly downhill.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat" it said.
"London" I said confidently.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat".
"LONDON" I repeated.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat"

By now I was sweating a little -

"LONDON" I screamed into the phone.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat".....

MSNBC carried a story last week about the recent OPEC meeting in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, called the US Dollar worthless. You can find that article here - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21870271/).

I'm sorry, but if the US Dollar is so worthless, would he mind giving his huge, mega pile of worthless paper to me? I mean, if he really doesn't like getting almost 100 of those worthless bits of paper replete with US propaganda written all over them for a single barrel of oil, I will volunteer here and now to take them all off of his hands - for free. Yes, I will drop my usual tipping fee of 3.5% for other people's garbage and simply take it all - lock, stock and barrel (no pun actually intended).

Laptops may be one of the most useful inventions in the world, even more useful than TiVo and Jiffy Pop. However, a quite frightening study was released yesterday that linked laptop usage to infertility in males. The study, released by the State University of New York, suggests that the heat generated from laptops can significantly elevate the temperature of one’s scrotum, potentially putting sperm count at risk. While the laptop may be making us more of a mobile technology generation and more efficient in the workplace, when it comes to bringing home the bacon and expanding the family unit - laptops may make male sperm count drop.

A plumbing blunder at Hiroshima University's Higashi-Hiroshima Campus resulted in toilet water being sent to drinking taps for more than a decade, it has emerged.

University officials announced the mix-up on Friday. The problem was uncovered after about 80 students at the campus who drank the water in July fell ill, with symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea.

Officials said the pipes for high quality drinking water and low grade toilet flushing water at the gymnasium on the campus had been attached the wrong way around. They said it was believed the pipes had been fitted incorrectly since the gymnasium was completed in April 1993.

From - http://www.asianoffbeat.com/default.asp?Display=737

I spent 12-years living in Houston, Texas. Don't get me wrong, I liked it - most of the time. I could not get over how stupid some Texans actually are when it comes to geography and history. Here are the top three questions that I was asked in Texas through all of those years - even by fairly normal and intelligent folks...

1. Can you speak to me in your own language!

2. What Bible do you read?

3. Do you know my fiend Tom who lives in London too?

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

The religious radio shows in Texas can be a giggle. When driving between Houston and Dallas I used to listen to them a lot. Amazing programs on those evangelical radio stations.

In late December 1999, I happened to be driving back to Houston and listening to one particular firebrand. Yes it was all hell and damnation and my way or the highway and by the way do send me some money type stuff. His entire show that night was dedicated to the coming end of the century which was literally just a couple of days away.

"Repent now for the end of the world is upon us" the man rants. He went into some tirade about the signs that the apocalypse was upon us all and that the world most likely would end as Jesus descended in a cloud to save the righteous at exactly midnight (Texas time of course) on the 31st December 1999.

Yes dear readers, Christmas is a dangerous time for us Englishmen living in the Czech Republic. I for one have been carefully watching my step and looking upwards periodically especially in the Christmas markets here. The reason? Well, there is an obscure but extant tradition here of hitting unsuspecting Englishmen over the head with falling Christmas trees. It goes hand in hand with a variety of other Xmas traditions in this little country that include things such as according to www.discoverczechrep.com's article , here

- No lights should be lit in the house before the first star comes out. After it does, dinner is served;
- The table should be set for an even number of guests. An odd number brings bad luck or death;
- An extra plate can be used to even out the number of guests. An extra plate should also be prepared;
- in case an unexpected guest or a person in need comes by the house at dinner time;

Not sure whether to gag or laugh at this. I guess the Falling Georgie has been around a while but now you can play with Falling Hillary and even better - Falling Hillary in a bikini! I prefer to have her fall in the bikini since one can grab her with the mouse and fling her across the screen or even better, put the mouse where no mouse belongs!. I detest this arrogant, know-it-all, cuckolded woman and I hope something ugly and bad smelling about her and her smug faced husband comes out before the election.

Meanwhile, I'm going back to playing with my mouse.....