Fake

An NHS trust [in the U.K.] has admitted superimposing an image of a government minister into a publicity photograph for a hospital building project.

Culture Secretary James Purnell [far right] was late for the photo at Tameside General Hospital in Greater Manchester, turning up after three other MPs had to leave.

The MP agreed to have his photograph taken in the same spot, but says he did not agree to the images being merged.

"We apologise if anyone feels misled by this, but we took the judgement that the image of all our MPs on site supporting this excellent new project, was too good an opportunity to miss."

Ha ha ha...bullshit. Also, whoever did it has poor Photoshop skills.

Pure Evil

The repression in Myanmar.

Any government that resorts to this is evil and needs to be removed. No question.

Men were shouting at the soldiers in English: "Fuck you. Go fuck yourself".

Soliders there, mutiny, do the right thing.

That Folsom ad

Having worked with the "leather community" I'm more shocked they were able to do anything creative.

But of course, "the conservative group Concerned Women for America is complaining about the hypocrisy of it..."

The bread and wine representing Christ's broken body and lifegiving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys in this twisted version of Da Vinci's The Last Supper," CWA said on its Web site.

"'Gay' activists disingenuously call Christians 'haters' and 'homophobes' for honoring the Bible, but then lash out in this hateful manner toward the very people they accuse," said said Matt Barber, CWA's policy director for cultural issues.

"In their version of The Last Supper, Christ, Who gave His life for our sins, is despicably replaced by sin itself as the object of worship."

CWA is calling on California politicians -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sens. Feinstein and Boxer among them -- to "publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and His followers.

"We further challenge the media to cover this affront to Christianity with the same vigor as recent stories about cartoon depictions of Mohammed and other items offensive to the Muslim community," CWA said.


So if the fags to it, it's an "unprovoked attack" but if say...



...does it, that's ok?

Or perhaps...



See more Other Last Suppers: Where’s the Outrage?.

Afghans call for 'death to Canada'

I hate what we're becoming. Hear that Harper?

Angry Afghans took to the street yesterday chanting "death to Canada" and calling for foreign troops to go home following a series of raids on suspected insurgent homes.

Protesters said international soldiers killed a religious leader and his brother during the raids Tuesday in Senjaray, a community on the outskirts of Kandahar city. It is in the Zhari district, a hotbed of Taliban activity west of the city.

"Death to Canada," some chanted. "Death to foreigners."

Read more here.

Be Afraid

Be very afraid

Space: 1899

Do not suffer fools gladly

Ahmadinejad at Columbia

The remark that clearly struck a chord with the audience above any other regarded his feelings on homosexuality. Ahmadinejad said during the question-and-answer portion: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do in your country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you that we have it."

The audience responded in unison with a jeering laughter and boos.

It's too...big

Comparison of images sizes: average HD, 17" and b&w 9"

Devin Faraci at CHUD is lamenting the fact that TOS Star Trek does not really survive the transition to HD and a large screen.

The long shots looked amazing, but as soon as the camera cut to a close up of someone's face, I was filled with horror. Make-up drips off everyone's face, but there's still not enough foundation to cover the lunar landscape of Sulu's cheeks. And one of the boasted about improvements of the HD version of Trek - that Spock's skin coloring was, for the first time in history, presented as originally conceived - was the most distracting. Spock looks badly jaundiced, and his lips are a deep pink, like Nimoy was gorging on cotton candy between takes. His ears are egregiously fake, and I think you can see the line between the prosthetic and Nimoy's real ears on a number of occasions. The only thing worse than Spock's thick yellow make-up, though, is the way that it often just stops at his neck, really fakening up the whole image.

He's right of course. Star Trek was never meant to be viewed on anything as large as an average HD screen. I once saw an episode on a movie screen, and the wooden doors, zippers and make up became a distraction. That, and after having seen the 2nd Matrix on Imax, I can say some things where never meant to be that...big.

Read more here.

Idiot criminal uploads photos of self from stolen iMac

Last week a number of computers were stolen from our office in Vancouver, BC. One of those computers was a shared iMac with Flickrbooth, an app that automatically uploads photo booth shots to our flickr account, installed on it. Just this morning a friend called to tell us that there are photos of whoever has the computer now in our flickr stream! Obviously the guy didn't know he was uploading images of himself and his awesome tattoos.

Read more here at Boing Boing.

Peanut Butter disproves Evolution

The blinding stupidity behind this clip is a wonder to behold.

Xcite!™ Xposed!™

At this point I must state that I am not an Xcite!™ customer.

As only an American could envision, you are born into Second Life sexless. Well not so much sexless as genital-less.

Embarrassing.

No sir, not embarrassing, because you're going to take care of it with another American concept. Free Enterprise comes to the rescue in the form of Xcite!™

Xcite!™ is the Microsoft of Second Life, by far the largest suppler of "The Finest Sexual Equipment". Thus equipped, you are compatible with all the other Xcite!™ users. No software issues. It is so MS-like in fact, many Xcite!™ users are genuinely surprised that some would choose another brand (overheard once: "If you want to have sex in Second Life, you have to have Xcite!™").

Xcite!™ is usually the first place newbies go to fill their "sexual equipment" needs, normally on no better advice that from another recent newbie saying "It's what everyone buys".

So before all the fun, we too have to go dick, umm excuse me, cock shopping (my apologies to our female readers for a lack of info for them, but I do know Xcite!™ makes a wide range of Clits, just for *you*).



The Xcite!™ main store has a wide selection for all budgets.



Thoughtfully packaged *sexual survival kits*. Before you have a heart attack, those prices are in Lindens, the currency within Second Life. That 1,200L is about $4.80 U.S.

And this doesn't included all the other wonderful bits available: Xcite!™ shoulders, Xcite!™ lips..I believe there is even an Xcite!™ whip.

But we came to buy a cock. If you are looking for the very best, look no further than the X3.



This sizable fully functional and tintable Hindenburg-like creation is the must have of 2007. On its first day of release, proud new owners were seen across Second Life, whipping out X3s, comparing size and animations. This competition guaranteed that most users had theirs dialed up to "Horse".

And one did not buy the X3 directly. No, you first had to buy the X2 (if you were not already a proud owner) and then *upgrade* to the X3. What a feeling of entitlement it must give!

[There are stories that the early X2 had a bug during the upgrade process, causing it to scurry away like the baby chestburster in Alien...]

Once worn, the X3 user is greeted with dialog boxes and buttons (a HUD, or "heads up display"), taking all that silly guesswork out of cybersex. Xcite!™ is truly for those who don't know (or possibly care) what real sex is actually like (remember gentle readers, these products are designed and made by *programmers*...I rest my case).

Another charming aspect of Xcite!™ products are their chattiness. Once *touched*, it will emit an endless stream of text based "erotic" responses (or on special occasions, audio of someone faking an orgasm). Ripped from the pages of very bad 50's porn (oh um, about which I know nothing), it has a very bad habit of turning up in very public spaces (usually the result of newbie exuberance at finally experiencing sex in any form. "Hey everybody! I'm getting laid on the dancefloor!")

God forbid you should be near someone having an Xcite!™ orgasm (again, these happen in clubs while dancing). It doesn't so much resemble an orgasm as someone being kicked in the back by a horse...repeatedly.



The Master/Slave movement is big in SL, and they are not forgotten. Finally, ChainAnywhere 2.0 Technology. No more runaway slaves ruining your garden party.



There's something for everyone. But we will leave the Furries and Gorians for a later date.

Oh and by the way. If you're really looking to purchase the best dick in SL, ask the black guys, duh.

Mattel apologizes to China over recalls

What the fuck??

U.S.-based toy giant Mattel Inc. issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.

"And Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys,"

What a joke! Never has ass kissing been so out in the open.

Read more here.

Second Life's Infidel Burka

And it comes loaded with goodies



(nod to secondlifeherald.com)

$1 Cdn = $1 US

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. greenback on Thursday for the first time since November 1976, capping a spectacular 62 per cent rise in less than six years.

Read more here.

Who cares?

TOS/DS9 Tribbles side by side

The worst cartoons...ever?

Rocket Robin Hood



The Mighty Hercules

CBC Radio taglines not everyone’s favourites

In case you’ve missed it, CBC Radio is using a new series of taglines to promote its regional programming. But the phrases like Totally Toronto and Very Vancouver aren’t ringing well with some people. (Montreal bucks the alliteration trend with So Montreal. I guess Mostly Montreal wasn’t quite right.)

Ah, marketing people, gotta love 'em.

Ok, so you don't. Like Totally.

Read more here.

The Biggest Ever BitTorrent Leak: MediaDefender Internal Emails Go Public

Oooo the scary guys at MediaDefender.

I'd only caught bits and pieces of this story.

Until now.

When TorrentFreak reported that Media Defender (MD) was behind the video site MiiVi, they cast doubt on us. Now, in what is surely the biggest BitTorrent leak ever, nearly 700mb of MD’s emails have gone public. When MD’s Randy Saaf found out we rumbled MiiVi he said, “This is really fucked.” This is too, but much more so.

This story has me very amused.

Read more here.

Video response to Osama

Mystery of the nearly men

Once we thought of them as mere brutes. But a series of recent discoveries shows the Neanderthals in a haunting new light. Steve Connor reports on a dark skeleton in humanity's cupboard

Read more here.

New evidence on the role of climate in Neanderthal extinction

The mystery of what killed the Neanderthals has moved a step closer to resolution after an international study led by the University of Leeds has ruled out one of the competing theories – catastrophic climate change – as the most likely cause.

Read more here.

Experts ponder twilight of the Neanderthals

The great "whodunnit of palaeontology" has been given a new twist with findings that our enigmatic cousins, the Neanderthals, were in all likelihood not killed off by a mini Ice Age, as some authorities contend.

Read more here.

China Airlines paints over name, logo on wreckage of jet at Naha Airport

Ha!

China Airlines has painted over its name and logo on the wreckage of a passenger jet that exploded in flames at Naha Airport in Okinawa moments after passengers slid down emergency chutes to escape.

The airline painted over the name "China Airlines" on the left-hand side of the aircraft and the company's logo on the plane's tail fin.

After the accident, photographs and video footage of the jet continued to appear in news reports, and the company apparently painted over the name and logo to limit further damage to its image.

Haha too late!

Read more here.

Toronto is now Canada's Seattle

Cause now the CN Tower is just another Space Needle.

The iconic skyline silhouette of the world-famous CN Tower, long billed as the tallest free-standing structure in the world, has been eclipsed by a new Middle Eastern monolith.

Burj Dubai, a soaring Y-shaped needle of glass and stainless steel, is now two metres taller than the 553-metre downtown Toronto tower that guards the Lake Ontario shoreline, the developer, Emaar Properties, said in a release Thursday.

The building, slated to have an interior designed by Giorgio Armani, also has scaled 150 livable levels, the largest number of storeys for any building in the world.

Burj Dubai had already beaten Taipei 101, which at 508 metres has been holding the tallest-building title since it opened in 2004.

There will be much lamenting here, as yet another nail in the coffin of "world class city" is driven home. But worry not, the rich can still have beautiful views of the formerly great tower from their 2 million dollar condos...

I love it.

‘I’ve stood around too long’

Excellent story out of Nova Scotia...Having met mindless bullying in my life as well, this story is very heartening.

Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt.

The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.

The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying.

"It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something," said David.

They used the Internet to encourage people to wear pink and bought 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear. They handed out the shirts in the lobby before class last Friday — even the bullied student had one.

David [one of the organizers] said one of the bullies angrily asked him whether he knew pink on a male was a symbol of homosexuality.

He told the bully that didn’t matter to him and shouldn’t to anyone.

No it shouldn't, but it does to the brainless.

Read more here.

Microsoft updates Windows without users' consent

Huh?

Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users' knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates.

Many companies require testing of patches before they are widely installed, and businesses in this situation are objecting to the stealth patching.

Wtf? I don't use MS myself.

Read more here.

Kathy Griffin (and to a lesser extent Jesus)

Before Kathy Griffin won a creative arts Emmy last weekend for her reality show, "My Life on the D-List," she joked that an award would move her to the C-list.

She was right: "C" as in censored. The TV academy said her raucous acceptance speech will be edited when the event, which was taped, is shown Saturday on the E! channel. The main prime-time Emmy Awards air the next night on Fox.

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus."

"This award is my god now!"

The comedian's remarks were condemned Monday by Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who called them a "vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech.

And boy, they should know.

Read more here.

2Clix sues Whirlpool founder

Some software company, 2Clix, is suing an Australian internet forum..because they were criticized.

Poor whining babies. Hope they get their ass kicked right out of court, to a chorus of laughter.

They just opened themselves up to a whole heap of ridicule.

Planet wide.

Idiots.

Read more here and here.

Viking ship

An archaeologist using radar technology said Monday he has found the outline of what he believes is a 1,000-year-old Viking longship under a pub car park in north-west England.

Read more here.

Torture

Much has changed since this scene from Star Trek was aired...

He's not crazy, he's an idiot

If only it was that easy. I'm not a big South Park fan, but sometimes they nail it.

Bin Laden

IMHO, it is not the same guy in both pics...

What say you?

The Neolithic Revolution

For decades archaeologists have rightly respected the Neolithic period c. 8500 BC as a revolutionary era of the most profound change, when the wiring of mankind’s brain shifted from transient hunter-gathering to permanent settlement in farming communities. Hearths, temples, articulated burials, whistling ‘wheat’ fields and security replaced the uncertain ravages of seasonal running with the pack. Or so stereotypes maintain.

Now, from the remote shores of Budrinna on Lake Fezzan in Libya, and Melka Konture on the banks of the River Awash in Ethiopia, a series of stunning discoveries are set to challenge the originality of the Neolithic Revolution. After 39 years of surveys and excavations, Professor Helmut Ziegert of Hamburg University presents his results as a world exclusive in Minerva (pp. 8-9). In both African locations he has discovered huts and sedentary village life dating between an astonishing 400,000 and 200,000 Before Present

Read more here.

Fort Lauderdale

The mayor of Fort Lauderdale seems to be out of his mind, and now dangerously so...

Read more here.

Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of almost all of Canada, is saying in his *memoirs* that Pierre Trudeau did not have the "moral authority" to govern.

Where to start...Mr Mulroney seems to forget the untold damage he did to Canada.

...When Irish eyes are...

Nasty man, always has been.

Wait until they write his history...

The Great Pyramid

A group in Dessau, Germany, has received funds and famed architect Rem Koolhaas as an adviser in its quest to build the world's largest structure.

Dubbed a "monument for all of us" the new "Great Pyramid," which is estimated would take about 30 years to complete, would be about 1,900 feet tall and 10 times larger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Read more here.

Nuclear Warheads Mistakenly Flown Across U.S.

An Air Force squadron commander has been relieved of his command after five nuclear weapons were mistakenly loaded aboard a B-52 and flown cross-country from North Dakota to Louisiana last week, NBC News reported.

Five 150-kiloton warheads were attached to cruise missiles that were flown from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to be dismantled, but they should have been removed, according to officials.

Military officials insist the warheads remained "under control" at all times and did not pose a danger.

Read more here, once you come out from under the bed...

Greenpeace Video

Wow. You're for us or against us.

Condos

Moving on in the face of change and urban renewal can be difficult. In the case of about 20 businesses at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets, the prospect of relocating has suddenly become all too real.

Bazis International of Concord is scheduled to construct a 79-storey complex at the site and intends to start demolition in December. And so recently it sent out lease-termination notices. That's when reality set in.

How dare they whine. Rich people need proper housing too!

...the price range for its condos: $300,000 for a one-bedroom unit to over $2-million for a full-floor penthouse of close to 10,000 square feet.

Oh thank God, I thought they wouldn't be affordable.

Oh and btw, this is not urban renewal (no condo project is)...

Veronika Belovich, Bazis's director sales and marketing, said: "We're trying to make the city better. This is a junky corner and we want to make it a fabulous area."

Oh sorry, I must be mistaken...

Read more here.

Family Day

LOLOLOLOL

No, I'm not laughing because our premiere is called Dalton McGuinty. It's even better than that.

We are in an election campaign here in Ontario, and the current government is, umm, concerned about their standing in the polls....

So!

Ontarians can expect a new holiday in February if the Liberals are re-elected next month.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has proposed a new holiday called Family Day aimed at recognizing the importance of Ontario families by giving them more time to spend with their loved ones.

He says adding Family Day to the calendar will give Ontario workers a total of nine long weekends per year.

Glass is not as transparent.

Read more here.

'Clearest' images taken of space

A team of astronomers from the US and the UK has obtained some of the clearest pictures of space ever taken.

They were acquired using a new "adaptive optics" system which sharpens pictures taken from the Mount Palomar Observatory in California.

The images are twice as sharp as those from Hubble Space Telescope.

Read more here.