The Definition of "Conflict of Interest"

Astounding. Postimees reports on Keskerakond's latest endeavour: the bus attendants hired by the city are being told to attend the party's anti-government protest on May 1st. Not only are these people - given pointless jobs at minimum wage - being asked to sign a paper promising to be there, and give their phone numbers so it can be confirmed, but they are actually being paid a full day's wage and given an additional two days off with full pay for participating in a political rally.

Just to remind you: this money is coming out of the Tallinn municipal budget.

Savisaar seems to be getting really desperate. The elections are a year away, but it is increasingly likely that Estonia will join the Euro as of January - and that would be a Reform victory that the Centrists cannot counter.

Meanwhile, I'm sure you've seen Keskerakond's posters all over the cities. Am I the only one who thinks they are kinda poorly laid out? I saw one the other day in Tartu - the combination of Mart Laar's smiling mug and "Fifty thousand new jobs created" in a bold font. Unless people stop by and read the fine print, the message is kinda the opposite of what they were intending. Or is it just me?

Two more Th!nk3 posts. The Internet as a force multiplier, and the art of the possible. The latter is the consequence of a flame war, and being (once again) astounded at how people will not respond to what you are saying, but to what they think you are supposed to be saying.

Tartu floods

The river is 3,26 meters above notional zero.

Why Android

Went to the photo store today, to make a batch of flyers for our standup show. Eric whipped up a high-res JPEG with four banners stacked, so we could print them out for cheap on photo paper, cut them up into quarters, and leave at pubs, etc.

The Photopoint at Tartu Kaubamaja is for some reason not allowed to just pull off an image file from the Web. So, I take out my HTC Legend, go into AppFTP, get onto my file server, pull down the six-meg image onto the microSD card, pull it out, give it to the attendant and have them copy the file to their machine.

Is there an app for that, motherfucker?

E-stonia on Th!nk3

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