Blog: benperry.net

Something rather intestering happened yesterday on the world's stock markets (yes, I just said "stock markets" and "interesting" in the same sentence). Shanghai's main index dropped by about 8.8% due to either/both a computer glitch and/or Chinese officials cracking down on over-speculation. Pronto, the rest of the world's exchanges dropped like dominos and kept falling well into the mid-day today. The Dow Jones average in New York lost over 400 points and posted the worst single day loss since 9/11 (it has already bounced back, though, so stay away from that window). Here's what's most interesting: China [...]

I got a chance to see Tre Hardson of the defunct Pharcyde and his very tight band play at the Bohannon club last week [ photos ]. Tre seems to be doing more of a Lenny Kravitz change-up these days and his guitarist sounds for all the world a true follower (and whammy bar jedi) of Jimmy Hendrix. Tre is channeling J.B. flash 'n' flare now with just a bit of his old skool rap steez thrown in so we don't forget, albeit a far cry from the consciousness rapper of yore. Not that I can [...]

Hasselhoff Endorses Nowitzki for MVP By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: February 18, 2007 LAS VEGAS (AP) - Dirk Nowitzki picked up another MVP endorsement Sunday night - from David Hasselhoff. Hasselhoff, the well-traveled actor and German singing celebrity who's currently starring in "The Producers" at the Paris Las Vegas casino, was among the luminaries who walked the red carpet before entering the Thomas & Mack Center. He said he would choose the Mavericks star over two-time winner Steve Nash of Phoenix. "I think Dirk's going to get it this year, and [...]

Beware Germany-based gmail adopters. If you sign up in Germany, you will be bait-and-switched by Google with the domain googlemail.com, not gmail.com. This is because a guy named Daniel Giersch who holds the trademark to G-mail has been in court battles with Google since 2004 to keep his exclusive rights, for which Google's appeal was just rejected in an [edit: EU trademark] court . (Interestingly, his is a service for "real" mail of the three dimensional kind, which supposedly offers an alternative to Deutsche Post.) So, it's googlemail or nothing for the Germans. Or is it? It [...]

Na, toll. I'm not sure I can translate this 1-to-1 from German but it literally means "Oh, great" or "Well, great" and is always meant with ironic exasperation to point out a clearly non-great event-at best with eyes rolled and/or arms thrown upward-something you might say when you drop a cake or your car dies on the highway. I know it's hard to believe that Germany is worried about its youths getting too wasted at parties and doing stupid things (Germany, society of Bier and [...]