In my opinion, it is a complete and total fraud

Gore must know Harper really well...

Al Gore condemned Canada's new plan to reduce greenhouse gases, saying it was "a complete and total fraud" because it lacks specifics and gives industry a way to actually increase emissions.

"It is designed to mislead the Canadian people."

Yes, some of them will be mislead...they voted for Harper after all...

Read more here.

WIndows iPhoto

Too funny

Fark can Fuck off

From backingwinds blog:

FARK.com just underwent a major site redesign, and lost among the clutter is their new legal policy. One would intuitively think that simply posting a photograph to the forums over at FARK.com would not mean that one is surrendering their copyright to FARK.com for all time, but it would appear that that is no longer the case:

Fark.com is the legal owner of all copyright interests of Fark.com content. Each and every submission to Fark.com carries with it an implied assignment of the entire copyright interest in the submission. In exchange for the content and publication of that submission on Fark.com, Fark.com grants back to the submitter a non-exclusive, non-transferable and royalty-free license to republish that submission in any and all forms.

Essentially, this means that posting any of your content to FARK, be it photograph, text, or whatever, immediately and forever transfers your copyright ownership to the owners of FARK.com.

Read more here.

Text reveals more ancient secrets

Experts are "lost for words" to have found that a medieval prayer book has yielded yet another key ancient text buried within its parchment.

Works by mathematician Archimedes and the politician Hyperides had already been found buried within the book, known as the Archimedes Palimpsest.

But now advanced imaging technology has revealed a third text - a commentary on the philosopher Aristotle.

Read more here.

Signs and Wonders

Awesome God, NEW Jesus SIGHTING in Google Maps.

The Medieval mind continues to amaze me.

Second Life pVIII

A report from inside.

I've been inside for a month now, and have learned more about SL (as it is referred to inside. Outside is RL...)

On the downside, SL is expensive if you want to "own" land and build. First you pay outright for the land, then a monthly "land fee", depending on how much land you own.

I am presently at 1, 536 sqm, and am desperately looking around for a money raising scheme.

What makes money here? Land, gambling and sex (as well as clothing and body enhancements. Penises seem to go for twice the price of a whole body...and they're are different models and levels of functionality).

At the end of the day, SL is a chatroom (ok, rooms). It has its strange subcultures (Furries for example), and worlds of roleplay and violence. But it is multi-varied and always visually interesting (or shockingly tacky. Malls here can be nightmares).

When if finally comes in. Like a gif in the 90's, worlds in SL can take time to download and complete ("rezzing"), resulting in wonderful surreal landscapes.



My own landscape grew last week with the purchase of a piece of land next to my first. I took down the "house/gallery" on the first, replaced it with a park and began to build a new gallery.



So I settling in to the new world, developing my character and his role there...

Cirque du Soleil

I just don't get the point of Cirque du Soleil

Even though I come from Montreal, I have to agree with the writer of the following article and it's commentors...

There's no denying the skill of the performers, but it just seems so full of it's own self-importance. It's acrobatics and gymnastics - not the Cistine Chapel

Their marketing is Pretention of the highest order. My thoughts on the Love show are here.

Read more here.

Zeke's Gallery

Zeke Gallery blog has been getting cease and desist letters bacause of a posting:

Over the weekend I apparently got a visit by a bailiff. It appears that Pierre Antoine Tremblay doesn't like this here blog. Specifically, this post from November.

It also appears that M. Tremblay needs to learn the difference between the subject of a sentence and the object of a sentence. I very frequently have the same problem in French. However, in English (and especially if you click on the links in the post) it is obvious that Mr. Martorana was the catalyst for all the arrests and investigating. Personally, I like how M. Tremblay doesn't complain about me writing that he tried to sell some fake paintings to Loto-Quebec.

Then don't even get me started about what I think about his gallery.

Having had my own run in with creeping lawyers and their letters, Zeke should not be too put out.

Adobe must be kidding

From the Adobe website:

Trademarks are not verbs.

CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

Trademarks are not nouns.


CORRECT: The image pokes fun at the Senator.
INCORRECT: The photoshop pokes fun at the Senator.
Always capitalize and use trademarks in their correct form.


CORRECT: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.
INCORRECT: The image was Photoshopped.
INCORRECT: The image was Adobe® Photoshopped.
Trademarks must never be used as slang terms.


CORRECT: Those who use Adobe® Photoshop® software to manipulate images as a hobby see their work as an art form.
INCORRECT: A photoshopper sees his hobby as an art form.
INCORRECT: My hobby is photoshopping.
Trademarks must never be used in possessive form.


CORRECT: The new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software are impressive.
INCORRECT: Photoshop's features are impressive.
Trademarks are proper adjectives and should be followed by the generic terms they describe.


CORRECT: The image was manipulated using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was manipulated using Photoshop.
Trademarks must never be abbreviated.


CORRECT: Take a look at the new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: Take a look at the new features in PS.
The trademark owner should be identified whenever possible.

CORRECT: People can say whatever words they choose.
INCORRECT: Corporations have a say in it.

Catholic Church buries limbo after centuries

The Roman Catholic Church has effectively buried the concept of limbo, the place where centuries of tradition and teaching held that babies who die without baptism went.

In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of salvation".

A long held belief is just tossed out? I guess without a monopoly you have to soften the message. Whatever dudes.

That's one piece of the medieval mind done away with. Now, what about woman, gays? Do they wait another 700 years?

Read more here.

Chinese couple sue Yahoo! in US over torture case

In a brave legal action against the great firewall of China, a jailed political prisoner and his wife have sued Yahoo! in a US court, accusing the internet firm of contributing to torture by helping authorities identify dissidents who were later beaten and imprisoned.

It won't happen, but I hope this fucks Yahoo over.

Read more here.

The human rights group Amnesty accuses Yahoo!, as well as Microsoft and Google, of facilitating or colluding in China's censorship of the net. Amnesty rejects the argument that the companies are "bringing the internet to China" , saying they are merely interested in getting into the market.

Yes of course, and I'm the King of Spain.

Uranus rings 'were seen in 1700s'

The rings around the planet Uranus may have been spotted 180 years before the accepted date for their discovery, according to a theory.

According to the orthodox view, the rings around Uranus were detected during an experiment in 1977.

Now, a scientist has re-evaluated a claim made in 1797 by astronomer Sir William Herschel that he saw rings around the seventh planet.

The claim had previously been dismissed as a mistake.

Read more here.

Second Life pVII

Whatever influence Second Life is having...it can't be good.

Would you believe...?

They'll miss it by that much....

Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway are set to play Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 in a movie version of Get Smart.

Will it be set today? Will Agent Smart have to battle the Forces of Evil of today? Will Mel Brooks help write?

"This is Al Queda, We Don't giggle here..."

I may need the Cone of Silence.

Richard Dawkins interviews the Bishop of Oxford

Why can't all those who disagree disagree in this way?

Apple TV Commercial

We control content on your computer. We control content on your iPod. Now, pay us and we'll control content on your TV.

Smoke and mirrors on the water...

Honours MP apologises for 'drunken romp'

"...in the interests of everyone concerned I have nothing further to say on this matter."

Read more here.

Private Launches, New Tech

... This Isn't Your Parents' Space Age...

True, we *actually* went somewhere. What a condescending headline.

Anyway, read more here.

Joan of Arc remains 'are fakes'

Bones thought to be the holy remains of 15th Century French heroine Joan of Arc were in fact made from an Egyptian mummy and a cat, research has revealed.

In 1867, a jar was found in a Paris pharmacy attic, along with a label claiming it held relics of Joan's body.

That really burns me up...

Read more here.

Second Life pVI

Second Life pV

I am a land owner in Second Life.

Here I stand atop my building in progress.

I am such a geek.

Creationism debate continues to evolve

Oh fuck, not here too...

The battle over creationism in the classroom is not unique to small town America, prominent Canadian biologists warn. It's creeping into this country's public school science classes and it's up to parents to do something about it.

Brian Alters, director of the Evolution Education Research Centre at McGill University, says the problem stems from a general de-emphasizing of evolution in our classrooms – from curriculum that barely mentions it, to teachers who avoid a topic they fear will be controversial with students or parents.

Boot them out on the non scientific asses I say, but no one listens to me.

Read more here.

On a related topic...LALALALALA I DONT HEAR YOU*

Teachers [in the U.K.] are dropping controversial subjects such as the Holocaust and the Crusades from history lessons because they do not want to cause offence to children from certain races or religions, a report claims.

Umm, certain historical events *should* offend. Sweden may be a lovely place *now*, but the Vikings were cunts.

What a whimpy age we live in.

*Read more here.

Pale Blue Dot

How to Build a Pyramid

Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only the Great Pyramid of Giza remains. An estimated 2 million stone blocks weighing an average of 2.5 tons went into its construction. When completed, the 481-foot-tall pyramid was the world's tallest structure, a record it held for more than 3,800 years, when England's Lincoln Cathedral surpassed it by a mere 44 feet.

We know who built the Great Pyramid: the pharaoh Khufu, who ruled Egypt about 2547-2524 B.C. And we know who supervised its construction: Khufu's brother, Hemienu. The pharaoh's right-hand man, Hemienu was "overseer of all construction projects of the king" and his tomb is one of the largest in a cemetery adjacent to the pyramid.

What we don't know is exactly how it was built, a question that has been debated for millennia...

Read more here.

Fiery Dragons

The Middle Ages is filled with stories of signs and wonders...

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for AD 793 records that the people of Northumbria were terrified when great sheets of lightning and fyrene dracan on tham lyfte fleogende, fiery dragons flew across the sky. Famine followed very soon afterward.

It is disturbing when these kind of stories pop up today...or perhaps the mentality of the Middle Ages isn't quite dead. There's life in the Old Girl yet.

When retired policeman Andy Key went on a trip to Rome, he was struck by the beauty of sunlight streaming through a window in the Vatican.

As the Pope made an address nearby, he decided to capture the stunning image on his camera.

But it was only when Mr Key, 48, and his wife Susan, 44, returned home and and downloaded their photographs that they noticed a strange apparition in the picture....

...Mr Key, from March, Cambridgeshire, said: "It looks like an angel hovering on the people's heads.

"No-one can explain it - there's nothing on their heads for the light to bounce off."

Turn off your mind here.

...Earlier this month, pregnant Amanda Skelding, 23, from Glasgow, saw what appeared to be a traditional image of Jesus in the grainy black and white picture she was handed after her ultraound scan.

Beer in "Convenience" stores

Convenient for whom thought?

Here in Toronto, if you want to buy beer, you have to go to a "Beer Store". In Quebec, you can buy beer at any corner store (the dep), but not here.

The LCBO has a monopoly on sales, so when a Liberal backbencher from Niagara Falls proposes to "sell the province's wine and beer in corner stores", the monopoly goes into full gear.

David Caplan, minister responsible for the LCBO, said he is not that interested in having the conversation...he said, without elaborating.

New Democrat Peter Kormos called the idea "horse crap,"

Ah, intellectual debate.

Maybe they should ask the people, who we all know love government monopolies. Haaaahaha, I crack myself up.

Second Life pIV

A full sized (but yet unfinished) cruise ship, the S.S. Galaxy. Yes, the waterslide works.



Here I stand atop a Klingon Bird of Prey (you can go inside too).



An island retreat.



A vast Cyberpunk complex to explore (Nexus Prime).



A soaring skyscraper.



And of course, the Eiffel Tower, with free parachute ride down...

Ramses II's hair safe from Net sale

Strands of hair from the head of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II came home to Egypt on Monday after the son of a French laboratory worker tried to sell them on the Internet, the state news agency MENA said.

An Egyptian archaeological mission had flown to Paris to bring home the strands, apparently taken from the mummy of Ramses when it went to France for treatment in the 1970s.

The seller had said he obtained the relics from his deceased father, who worked in the laboratory entrusted with analysing and restoring the mummy. He had offered to provide certificates of authenticity to buyers

Read more here.

Alka Seltzer

I waited 35 years to see this again.

Second Life pIII

A lonely island. A mysterious towering castle. What could it be?



Dear God no!!!. It's not a castle. It's a shrine. A Shrine to...Duran Duran!!!

Oh the Humanity!

Stonehenge - secrets of the builders being revealed

It is a paradox that the further we move in time away from a pre-historical event (that is before the appearance of contemporary written records) that the more we learn about the facts of that pre-historical event says our BNP culture correspondent.

Victorian scholars believed that the great stone circle on Salisbury Plain was once a druidic temple. Researchers in the mid to late 20th century proven beyond doubt that Stonehenge was built 2000 years before the first druid stepped foot in Wiltshire. Today's researchers are uncovering much more than the previous generation of archeologists.

[this may or may not be true, as future researches will say the same thing...but do read more...]

Read more here.

Hitler link alarms German resort

Germans have been embarrassed by the fact that Adolf Hitler remains an honorary citizen of Bad Doberan, a town that will host the annual G8 summit.

The town council will hold a special meeting shortly to officially remove Hitler from the roll of honour.

Read more here.

Call that humiliation?

By Terry Jones, in the Guardian

No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch

Read more here.

Second Life pII

It's so...big.



There are abandoned factories to play in.



Or Roman meeting halls.



Oh look, the Big'O'Mall. All a virtual shopper would ever need, all under one roof!



A fully functional 18th century theatre perhaps?



There is a retreat for environmental groups.



Private homes hang from mountainsides.



A sheep filled commons on Renaissance Island.



No one if forgotten. There are free bongs and party favours for those who search....