Hum a few bars, and give in to Satan…

Call me cynical, but when I read a story about Midomi.com, a site which supposedly lets you hum a snippet of a song and then tells you what the song is, I scoffed. Something like that would have to be the work of Satan. Of course, I also used to say that about TiVo and dental floss.

Anyway, after nearly 24 straight hours of singing to my laptop, I’m fairly impressed, and quite addicted. I’m virtually tone deaf, yet Midomi was able to deduce such tunes as Hit the Road Jack, Blue Danube Waltz, We are the Champions and Do You Believe in Magic?

It’s not perfect. It thought California Girls was Put on a Happy Face, and that Mozart’s 40th was The Godfather theme. Midomi detected our national anthem, but not La Marseillaise or O Canada.

But here’s where it got weird. Bored with my own voice, I began playing actual recordings, and Midomi went nuts. It failed to recognize Mick Jagger singing Satisfaction, Bob Dylan doing Like a Rolling Stone, or The Boss doing Born in the U.S.A. Maybe it just expects voices, and gets confused by instruments.

Finally, in the wee hours of this morning, I signed off, giving the raspberries into my microphone. Midomi immediately told me it was Marrakesh Express

Burglar caught in air conditioner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police arrested a suspected burglar who got stuck in the casing of an air conditioner that had been removed, his head and arms dangling out of the grocery store wall with the rest of his body inside.

Police said the 39-year-old man was found stuck in the hole in the wall on Wednesday in the New York City borough of Queens with his with pockets full of cash.

He was charged with burglary and possession of stolen property.

If your afraid of clowns, don’t go to Germany's carnival capital, Cologne

BERLIN, Feb 1 (Reuters Life!) - Germany's carnival capital, Cologne, has announced a steep rise in fines against urinating in public before this year's festivities that doubles the size of the country's fourth-largest city to over two million.

A spokeswoman for the Cologne municipal authorities, bracing for 1.3 million revelers at Europe's biggest carnival parade, said the fine would be nearly tripled to 35 euros to prevent a repeat of last year's mess when 500 were caught in the act.

"Even though women drink just about as much as the men, they wait their turn in line at the portable toilets while men just go anywhere," she said ahead of the annual carnival celebrations in mid-February.

Labels: carnival, clowns, cologne, festivals, germany

I bow before your greatness....

Labels: business, comics, Danae, discrimination, lawsuit, women

Funny as in Ha Ha? Comedian Al Franken will run for Senate in 2008.

Washingtoning Post Online

WASHINGTON -- Comedian Al Franken has decided to run for U.S. Senate in Minnesota in 2008, challenging incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, a senior Democratic official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The official, who requested anonymity because Franken has not made an announcement, said that the comedian and former star of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" told her of his decision recently.

Andy Barr, the political director of Franken's Midwest Values Political Action Committee, declined to comment.

The news was not unexpected. Franken has been calling members of the Minnesota congressional delegation to get their input on a run, and he announced this week that he would be leaving his show on Air America Radio on Feb. 14. He told listeners he would be making a decision on a race soon.

Should he win the Democratic primary in Minnesota, Franken would take on Coleman, a first-term senator who is among the Democrats' top targets.