I'm not sure what is going on but Team Great Britain is pulling a lot of gold medals out of the hat and currently have the third most golds in that league table of medals.....

In previous Olympic games Team GB were lucky to get a few medals and it always seemed that the athletes were touted for big things and then didn't deliver. One had to live with the indignity of being beaten by nations like France, Trinidad and Greece in that medals table. Something has changed.....

You would think that a city council would recognise it's own city skyline right? Hmmmmm. Well Birmingham (England) City Council just paid 15,000GPB to print and mail out a brochure about its recycling successes only to have it pointed out to them that the skyline used was actually that of Birmingham - Alabama.

How embarrassing....

Young Brits are increasingly unpopular the tourist world over due to their drunken, violent and stupid behaviour. Take for example the British man who got drunk in Brno, Czech Republic and was arrested after breaking into a high security building, crashing under a desk and pooping in the waste basket. Or the drunken British woman who tried to open a door on an airplane at 32,000 ft punching several people in the process. She was arrested after the plane had to divert for an emergency landing and now faces jail and costs for the diversion.

What is it about British culture that produces such people?

Since the beginning of this year the US Dollar has fallen from 22 Czech Crowns per Dollar to 14.4 Czech Crowns per Dollar - that is just about 35% people and against the currency of a small Central European country emerging from decades under Communism and a population of 10 million people. How far the mighty have fallen!

How would you like to pay a monthly mortgage of 1.5 million GBP? Well, thats what the Russian billionaire who owns Chelsea football club will be paying after buying a Villa in the South of France. The Villa became the most expensive property on the planet after his purchase. La Leopolda used to be owned by Bill Gates.

Read more details at here .....

Gotta say, I think he overpaid but if you can afford to buy Chelsea well I guess you don't care too much about saving the odd million right?

If anyone was in any doubt about the economic difficulties being faced by firms in today's economic climate, the latest news ought to help confirm just how bad the western economy really is. Yes, that well know peddlar of religious dogma, GOD & Co, Inc. has reported a loss for the last fiscal year.

God & Co, Inc's CEO - The Pope to some, anti-Christ to others, reported the losses yesterday. He reported to shareholders that the company made made 236.7m euros in 2007 compared with outgoings of 245.8m euros - yes.... a loss and blamed the company's issues on the falling value of the US Dollar where most of the Company's customers reside.

Locked in a divorce for approaching two years, my hatred of lawyers is growing rapidly. I sit watching my assets slowly diminish and my debts grow while two lawyers charge their fees for what I can only call busy work. Its sad that by the time this is over, the lawyers will have the assets that should be split as a part of this process.

Well, I always thought of New Zealand as a staid little country full of religious types and very conservative but perhaps I was wrong? First off they actually have a nude news TV show as documented in an earlier post and now it turns out that a Rugby TV show was interrupted by 4 minutes of hardcore pornography as a TV station its pay per view channel with its sport channel!

Adolf Hitler finally got what was coming to him. He was beheaded. And you thought he committed suicide at the end of the war? Nope, he had his head ripped off just a few days ago.

Apparently, a protestor entered Madam Tussaud's waxworks in Berlin and ripped the head of Adolf there and then as a protest against the figure being on display. Adolf got swift justice - it only took 70 years!

You can read the actual story here.

Will this start a trend? Will we now see other despots summarily executed at the waxworks and what a way to drive up visitors - weekly beheadings a la the French Revolution at Madam Tussauds.....

Internet dating has moved into much more sleazy territory.

These days ads posted on line are often simply prostitutes posing as women seeking sex and friendship as one sting operation in the USA discovered! Not only that but a whole host of services aimed explicitly at obtaining quick sex via an Internet dating site have suddenly sprung up. I know because their ads appear even on an on line soccer management game I use!

© Laurin Rinder | Dreamstime.com

You just can't avoid sex on the internet it seems....

Have you noticed how commodity prices are going up and up and breaking new records everyday? Its not just oil prices but almost every natural resource and raw material. And you can forget what the politicians say about speculation driving up prices - thats just a knee jerk reaction and an attempt to detract attention from the real problem. Which is - too many people on planet earth chasing too few natural resources....

The European Union - an entity promoted by eager politicians who apparently continue to turn a deaf ear to European citizens - is going through some serious issues. Not only did the Irish citizenry show their distaste for all things 'European' recently by sending a puppet to represent them in the Eurovision song contest but they had the audacity to vote against the EU constitution! Now the Poles and Czechs have also highlighted the Euro division between politicians seeking more power for themselves and the average European citizen who simply wants the EU to go away.

A quick trip to Switzerland early this week turned into the trip to hell. I was recovering from a nasty flu bug already but on my second evening in Switzerland the sweet and sour chicken turned out to be more sour than sweet. I awoke at 1:30am and promptly threw up and kept on throwing up until, the sweet and sour made it far enough through for my insides to recoil in horror and make sitting in the toilet as opposed to looking in it, a necessity. What a night!

Finally, I go to sleep around the time to get up and had to go to visit a client to work. I still felt terrible and was afraid I would monopolize their bathroom. However, I avoided food and all seemed to turn out reasonably well.

Once upon a time trade shows of almost any kind were littered with semi-naked women draped seductively over cars, trucks, bikes or whatever it was that was being sold. Yes - Sex sells and the Booth Babe dominated at trade shows. These days or some reason the Booth Babes appear to have gone away. More and more trade shows now ban the Booth Babe and trade shows are arguably more boring for it.

Well, the strangeness around the severed feet washing up on beaches in British Columbia, Canada get's even weirder today as it is announced that the latest foot is a hoax. DNA testing suggests the severed foot is actually a skeletonized animal paw shoved into an Adidas shoe. We await news on the other severed foor found nearby recently.

You can find the latest update in this strange and stranger story here.

Villagers in Romania have elected a dead man as their Mayor according to a BBC article. But for me, thats not the funny part of the story. The funniest bit is the quote from one of the villagers who had voted to re-elect the Mayor despite the fact that he had recently died. He said "I know he died, but I don't want change". I can't think of any bigger change than dying can you?

Recently, I had occasion to try to visit Czech officialdom regarding the formation of a company. All I needed was to obtain a document from the local authority - easy right?

Well no, not here.

I went as directed to the government office where I was informed I was at the wrong office. They directed m to another office across town. On arrival there, I was told yet again that I was in the wrong place an directed to another office. There, yes - you guessed, I was told I was in the wrong office and sent back to the place I first started. At the original office I was told yes - this is the correct place!

Apparently, a new swimsuit developed by British manufacturer SPEEDO is taking credit for helping break world swimming records. 30 World swimming records have been broken recently by swimmers wearing the LZR Racer swimsuit which sucks the muscles into the perfect shape to swim and is both lighter than others and repels water to reduce drag.This has got national swim teams like that of Japan worried since they don't have a contract with Speedo in advance of the Olympics.

Hilary Clinton now claims the popular vote and has told us that votes don't count until cast - which means she is going all of the way to the Democratic convention in the hope that Sen. Obama makes some blunder between now and then. But hang on. Who would elect a woman who seemingly can't count? And who makes up and changes the rules as she goes? This woman has an ego the size of Everest and believes it is SHE who is important (and her alone) in this election.

Come on Hilary - we know that you love Nazi created PR tactics (If you say something loud enough and often enough people believe it) but we too can count.... and Obama leads in the popular vote....

Several popular Digg articles discuss a video purportedly of an alien peering through a window in the Colorado area. The video may or may not be released to the media today and has already been judged to be real by an 'expert' although the same article says that Hollywood could make a puppet just like it for around $50,000. I'm sorry but I have to ask this. Why would an alien be peeping through the window of Mr. Joe Average in Colorado?

Living in the Czech Republic I occasionally come across folks with very funny names. For example, there is an actress/model here with the last name Bendova! and another with the last name Partysova! Of course these names are funny because they mean something in English too when pronounced but there are funny names here that require translation. Soustal is a last name that I wouldn't care to have because in English it literally is translated as F**cked! It would be sort of funny if Ms. Bendova got with Mr. Soustal but I suppose that is unlikely....

They say that eventually anything popular gets taxed and now a California law maker is proposing a tax on pornography. Yep, a 25 per cent tax on the production and sales of pornographic videos! I guess it is about time that someone proposed this but the question is how will it be collected?

California has a huge budget deficit and this newly proposed tax might just help rectify that issue. But can Californians reconcile themselves with this 'dirty' tax money? Who cares I guess?

Hull City in the Premier League... Sounds so damn good.

At the beginning of this season I told bored friends and relatives to watch out for Hull City. I had a feeling. Even after losing the opening game of the year at KC stadium, I still had that funny feeling. This would be the year. When Hull signed Jay Jay Okacha and I read the headlines where Jay Jay said "God told him to go to Hull". It seemed confirmed - divine right.

I am developing a keen hatred for banks. Just recently I tried to pay a bill using my debit card of course, despite having the cash in my account, I couldn't pay it because it exceeded the limit on my card! Banks like to keep your money, charge you fees and not let you have access to your own cash in the name of security.

Here in the Czech Republic, I tried to deposit a paper check. It was in US Dollars and on an American bank. It was a small amount - around $120. First off the bank here said that they could process the check for me - it would take 30-days (everything is now done electronically here). I agreed reluctantly and then they told me it wasn't a check but a bill!. I said look it says pay me not Please send us money... Well, 20 minutes of arguing and phone calls later, they reluctantly agreed to take the check having finally determined that it indeed was a check. Three weeks later an SMS notified me that the check was deposited in my account. It was around 1500 Czech Crowns. All seems well. Until I get my statement and see that they charged me 500kc for the processing!

Writing a blog like this has its benefits. You become keenly attuned to what is going on around you looking for things that are comic, funny or simply bizarre to write about. But today, I'm stuck. I can't think of anything to write about! at least not something new.

Everything today is just the same as it was yesterday. Obama versus Clinton, horrible events in the East, Corrupt politicians, Stupid celebrities, Oil at new highs, Dollar more than worthless. I mean what can I write about? There isn't anything going on.

I can always cover sex or porn - always brings in a few visitors from Google but frankly, I'm bored with those topics today. I could comment on the miserable weather outside I suppose or mention that I'm so damn busy at work but do you care? I thought not.

Today - life seems more boring than funny.....

Crude oil reaches $127/bbl and everyone gets worked up. Oil companies are blamed and their 'huge profits' criticised despite the fact that if you want prices to go down then they need to spend all of those profits on looking for more of the stuff. Hedge funds and speculators are blamed for being greedy and driving up prices despite the fact that crude oil supply is simply the issue. And consumers winge and moan about having to pay $4 for a gallon of gas.

These days it seems the news is just soooo damn depressing but in the Czech Republic, they make the news just a bit more palatable by stripping as they read the news. Red News is a service in which a different presenter(s) reads the news slowly peeling off their garments until totally naked. I guess you could say it makes the news - well - titillating.

Does Hilary Clinton remind anyone else of that damn Energizer Bunny? according to the Energizer Bunny's personal website, it's mantra is ''keep going'. It seems that Hilary's is also 'keep going' - whatever the cost - and so far its several million Dollars of her personal fortune. It's one thing to 'keep going' but it is another to recognize when it's time to quit.

A bunch of sixth formers at a school in Aberdeen were sent home in disgrace after they laid turf on the Common Room floor in a practical joke. According to the school, the pupils were also drinking....

I recently was brought a Sunday Express newspaper and, being starved of reading materials, I was anxious to read it. But what a disappointment. Once upon a time the Express was a quality paper filed with in depth news and analysis these days its a glorified titillation rag. Rather than in depth reporting and analysis, it's filled with short news stories in mono syllables and articles about models, celebrities, sex and violence.

What became of good newspapers? Are all news outlets now targeting the common denominator? Is everything we consume designed to be accepted by the average illiterate and uninterested in world events Joe? It's as if to be successful the media feel that they have to lower their standards to the gutter.