That is one big crowd, if one is stuck in the middle with bladder problems, going cross-eyed comes to mind.

Pyongyang, capital of the Hermit Kingdom, was overwhelmed by massive crowds as the funeral ceremony for Kim provided the only excitement in North Korea since the Japanese invasion of WW II.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

The heir to the throne, Kim Jong Un second from right, it looks like all he will be dealing with are mean bitter old senior citizens.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

 

That old general on the left looks distressed, either his hemorrhoids are acting up or his depends are frozen solid.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

Deep within the bowels of the palace the servants have broken into Kim’s booze and porn collections.  They are having a brief respite of western decadence.

                                                                                                                                                  

The shag rug on the roof of the hearst blends in nice with the fresh snow.  It also prevents Kim’s glass coffin from slipping off and shattering on the asphalt.

                                                                                                                                                 

A large group of bladder release sufferers.

                                                                                                                                                  

The viewing of the body.  Kim resting his dead head on a giant roll of bounty absorbent kitchen towels.

                                                                                                                                                   

Customer service is alive and well in North Korea.  A bus passenger lost her keys, the bus crew is going over the bus and nearby ground with a fine tooth comb.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 

 

Samoa and Tokelau have skipped a day – and jumped westwards across the international dateline – to align with trade partners.

As the clock struck midnight (10:00 GMT Friday) as 29 December ended, Samoa and Tokelau fast-forwarded to 31 December, missing out on 30 December entirely.

Samoa announced the decision in May in a bid to improve ties with major trade partners Australia and New Zealand.

Neighbouring Tokelau decided to follow suit in October.

The change comes 119 years after Samoa moved in the opposite direction. Then, it transferred to the same side of the international date line as the United States, in an effort to aid trade.

But New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly valuable trade partners for the country.

I don’t think I would worry about time too much if I lived in this paradise.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Samoa is located approximately halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii and has a population of 180,000 people. Around 131,000 people living in New Zealand are of Samoan descent, according to New Zealand’s 2006 census.

Local time up to 29 December had been 23 hours behind Auckland – but now it is one hour ahead.

Tokelau is a tiny New Zealand-administered territory of three islands. It lies to the north of Fiji, approximately half-way between Hawaii and the Australian coast.

People with birthdays on December 30th will be compensated with double the gifts on December 30th 2012.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Chavez holding the sign

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) — A day after officials announced the cancer diagnosis of Argentina’s president, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wondered Wednesday if the United States could be infecting the region’s leaders with the illness.

Five current or former Latin American presidents have battled cancer in the past few years, including Chavez himself, who claims to have beaten an unspecified cancer.

Chavez prefaced his remarks at a military event in Caracas by saying, “I don’t want to make any reckless accusations,” but the Venezuelan president said he was concerned by something he finds “very, very, very strange.”

“Would it be strange if (the United States) had developed a technology to induce cancer, and for no one to know it?” he asked.

Chavez cited the revelation this year that the United States, between 1946 and 1948, had carried out human experiments in Guatemala where subjects were exposed to sexually transmitted diseases.

That was 50 years ago, Chavez said. Will it be discovered 50 years from now that the United States was infecting presidents with cancer, he posited?

“I don’t know. I’m just putting the thought out there,” Chavez said.

The Venezuelan president, who has a firm anti-U.S. stance, frequently hurls accusations at his political enemies, domestic and foreign. He has repeatedly said the United States is trying to destabilize his government.

A spokesman for Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said Tuesday that doctors had diagnosed her with thyroid cancer. She is scheduled to undergo surgery next week.

Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2010.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff overcame cancer while she was a candidate for the office, and former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

Chavez said his ally Fidel Castro had repeatedly warned him to beware of what he eats, as foods are potential vehicles for an illness.

The Venezuelan leader questioned the timing of the diagnoses — Rousseff during her campaign, and Chavez himself right before an election year.

“I repeat: I am not accusing anyone. I am just using my freedom to reflect and give commentary on very strange occurrences that are hard to explain,” he said.

http://cache-02.cleanprint.net/media/swf/flashcomm.swf

 

Need the volume up for this one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

 

Recently I watching the news on Canada’s Superstation channel:  CHCH out of Hamilton, Ontario.  The news anchor was reading local Hamilton stories.  The anchor reported that Hamilton had experienced its fifth homicide of the year.  Hamilton is roughly the same size as Winnipeg.  Winnipeg has 38 homicides!  Hamilton must have really tough gun and knife possession laws.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

The picture below is of the infamous St. Regis hotel in downtown Winnipeg.  It is located one block from the MTS Centre, the home of the Winnipeg Jets and venue to dozens of concerts, circuses etc. throughout the year.  The alleys and sidewalks around the St. Regis are some of the most dangerous pavement anywhere in Canada.  Not to mention the rooms inside the hotel.  This year there have been two homicides inside the hotel, one outside and multiple stabbings and beatings inside and out. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

 

In my opinion the powers in charge of the downtown should make a concerted effort to close down the bar in the hotel.  It attracts rough and tumble Native people who when they are drunk, and they feel another person has made a major indiscretion towards them, pull out the knife and start stabbing or start beating the other person into a pulp.

Really helps Winnipeg’s downtown image, doesn’t it?

 

Hans Blix was the head United Nations weapons inspector back in the late nineties.  He would often go to North Korea and negotiate with the regime on whether they had weapons of mass destruction.  He knows only too well how hard to deal with Kim was.

Video is from Team America movie.  Language warning, in the last 10 seconds of the video Kim starts swearing like a drunken Scottish sailor.